Mechanical properties and thermogravimetric analysis of peroxide prevulcanized natural rubber latex induced by Co-60 γ radiation

Abstract The radiation and peroxide vulcanizations of natural rubber latex are sharing the same problem which is low mechanical properties on their latex. This makes it unsuitable to be use in the production of premium latex products such as surgical glove. Moreover, there are some cases where the use of sensitizers in radiation vulcanization and activators in peroxide vulcanization tends to produced latex film with unpleasant smell and darken color respectively during the drying process. For this study, radiation of latex formulations based on 0.1 pphr of tert-butyl hydroperoxide and 0.06 pphr of potassium laurate at various radiation doses showed increment of tensile strength with increasing of radiation doses; radiation at 25 kGy produced rubber film with tensile strength of 20.7 MPa which is almost 7 times higher than control.