Abstract
Thermoplastic elastomers from blends of natural rubber latex NRL and vinylacetate versatic ester copolymer latex VAcVe as a hydrophobic/hydrophilic blend have been prepared by the solution casting technique. The polymer blend was characterized using different characterization techniques such as thermogravimetric analysis, Fourier transform infrared and UV–Vis spectroscopy. The effects of VAcVe blend concentration on the thermal, structural, optical and mechanical properties of the NRL have been studied. The results reveal that the increase in VACVe content led to a more compact structure of the NRL/VAcVe polymer blends resulted in an increase in the disorder in the NRL/VAcVe blends. Further, the effect of gamma radiation on the (50% NRL/50% VAcVe) polymer blend has been studied. Samples from the (50% NRL/50% VAcVe) blend were irradiated with gamma doses of 10 and 30 kGy. It is found that the gamma irradiation leads to the dominance of degradation. In addition, the color changes in the irradiated samples were studied.