Grafted Deproteinized Natural Rubber as an Impact Modifier in Styrene-Methyl Methacrylate Copolymer Sheet

This research was studied to prepare styrene-methyl methacrylate copolymer sheet （S-co-MMA sheet） by using DPNR （deproteinized natural rubber） as an impact modifier. The DPNR was prepared by adding SDS （sodium dodecyl sulfate） into the HANR （high-ammoniated natural rubber latex） and followed by centrifugation. It was found that DPNR was successfully prepared with the lowest nitrogeneous content about 0.034±0.01% w/w by adding SDS for 1.00 phr and centrifugation at 12,000 rpm. Then DPNR was grafted with styrene and methyl methacrylate （DPNR-g-S/MMA） obtained by emulsion polymerization. The effects of DPNR-g-S/MMA were studied by varied the amount of SDS and redox initiator. From this result the grafting efficiency DPNR-g-S/MMA was higher than that of NR-g-S/MMA. The DPNR-g-S/MMA was used as an impact modifier in S-co-MMA sheet. Furthermore, the appropriate quantities of styrene monomer and DPNR-g-S/MMA were also investigated. While DPNR-g-S/MMA was used as impact modifier in S-co-MMA sheet, the result was shown DPNR-g-S/MMA improve impact strength of S-co-MMA sheet. Scanning electron micrographs of S-co-MMA sheet with DPNR-g-S/MMA was found the smooth fracture surface. Thus impact strength of S-co-MMA/gDPNR sheet was high and physical properties of S-co-MMA/gDPNR sheet could be able to be accepted in industry. Concisely, DPNR-g-S/MMA can be used as an impact modifier in S-co-MMA sheet.