Differential Scanning Calorimetry Study of Natural Rubber and Epoxidized Natural Rubber and Their Binary Blends

Abstract

Abstract In summary, the ENR exhibits a single Tg, whereas blending two different ENR samples of sufficiently high molecular weights would have no significant effects on their individual phase transition behavior in any event. This important finding implies that the epoxidation of NR basically leads to copolymers of random chemical structure and uniform composition, in line with the theoretical prediction of Scott. Moreover, the specific interactions presumably between the hydrogens of isoprene units and the oxirane oxygens of epoxidized isoprene moieties, are discovered to be strikingly weak, in the sense that the NR and ENR rubbers are positively immisicible.