Capability of Thermal Field-Flow Fractionation for Analysis of Processed Natural Rubber

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Applicability of Thermal field flow fractionation (ThFFF) was investigated for the analysis of masticated natural rubber (NR) adhesives produced bya hot melt mastication process. An optimum ThFFF condition for NR analysis was found by using tetrahydrofuran (THF) as a solvent/carrier and a field-programming. Low flowrate (0.3 mL/min) was used to avoid stopping the flow for the sample relaxation. Measured molecular weight distribution was used to monitor degradation of rubber during the mastication process. Rubber samples collected at three different stages of the mastication process and were analyzed by ThFFF. It was found that in an anaerobic process rubber degradation occurs at the resin-mixing (compounding) zone as well as in the initial break-down zone, while in an aerobic process most of degradation occurs at the initial breakdown zone. It was also found that E-beam radiation on NR causes a slight increase in the NR molecular weight due to the formation of a branched structure.