Abstract:
Thin layers of polystyrene (PS) and poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) are coated on natural rubber (NR) particles via admicellar polymerization using bilayers of cethyltrimethylammnonium bromide (CTAB) as a reaction template. The obtained admicelled PS-NR and PMMA-NR are characterized by FTIR, SEM, OM, and TGA. From the FTIR study, the admicelled rubbers showed the characteristic peaks of polystyrene and poly(methyl methacrylate), which confirmed the existence of PS and PMMA after the polymerization. The OM and SEM micrographs revealed the even coating of PS and PMMA over latex particles and they showed the coreshell structure of PS, PMMA and NR. As seen in the result of TGA, the admicelled rubbers began to lose weight at higher temperature, compared to that of NR, and they also showed the shift of major decomposition of pure PS and PMMA to higher temperature. The DTG curves also demonstrated an increase of char yields of the admicelled rubbers. As PS and PMMA content increased, the residual content also increased. The admicelled magnetite showed the characteristic peaks of polystyrene, poly(methyl methacrylate) which confirmed the existence of PS and PMMA after the polymerization. The OM micrographs revealed the even coating of PS and PMMA over magnetite particles and they showed the core-shell structure of PS, PMMA and Magnetite particles.
