Effect of chitosan loading on mechanical properties,water uptake and toluene absorbency of high and low molecular weight ENR50

This paper reports preparation,mechanical properties,water uptake and toluene absorbency of biocomposites comprising different loadings of chitosan cts (5,10,15,20 and 30 p.h.r.) into matrixes of enr50 and lenr50 (high and low molecular weight epoxidised natural rubbers with epoxy content of about 50%,respectively). it is found that the increase in cts loading increased cure torque,tensile strength and modulus at 100% but there was a decline in cure time and elongation at break for cts-enr50 biocomposites. similar trends were observed for cts-lenr50 biocomposites except for cure torque and tensile strength,with no significant changes upon increase in cts loading. sem micrographs of the tensile-fractured materials showed that at 15p.h.r. loading,for example,cts underwent a breakout,indicating good interactions in the cts-enr50 biocomposites. tga data revealed that thermal stability of both cts-enr50 and cts-lenr50 biocomposites remained fairly close to that of their respective unloaded rubber matrix. results of the water uptake study revealed that increase in cts loading led to an increase in water uptake of cts-lenr50 biocomposites,found to be considerably higher at every loading compared with that of cts-enr50 biocomposites. results of the toluene absorbency study revealed that lenr50 is a superior sorbent for toluene compared to enr50. however,increase in cts loading led to a decrease in toluene absorbency of both cts-lenr50 and cts-enr50 biocomposites.