MORPHOLOGY DEPENDENCE OF CRYSTALLIZATION OF NATURAL RUBBER IN BLENDS

Crystallization of natural rubber （NR） was investigated in different morphology for NR/styrene bntadiene rubber （SBR） blend and NR/polystyrene-（b）-polyisoprene （SI）/polystyrene （PS） blend. A purified NR （PC-TE） was prepared from pale crape via transesterification. In the blends, PC-TE formed various morphologies; that is, matrix phase, island phase and continuous phase with a nano-scale, respectively, in dependence upon the ratio of the rubbers. The crystallization rate of the blends was also significantly associated with the morphology of the rubbers.