Studies on prevulcanization of rubber latex with special reference to influence of storage and after treatments on properties of films

Systematic investigations on prevulcanization of NR latex with special reference to the influence of storage of latex and after-treatments of films, have been carried out. The other aspects studied include the effect of temperature on sulphur prevulcanization, the extent of crosslinking, tensile properties, stress relaxation characteristics, water absorption and leaching characteristics of prevulcanizcd latex films

Studies on Latex Compounding

The main objective of the present study was to explore ways of making latex products more cost effective and versatile. Polyethylene glycol was identified as a surface active agent in latex compounds which improves the filler-polymer interaction and also distributes the filler more uniformly. The use of such surface active agents can develop filled latex products with improved mechanical properties at a lower cost. In this study dispersions of carbon black and silica were successfully added to NR latex under high speed stirring without destabilizing latex.

Production of latex reclaim and its utilisation in polymer blends

The overall objective of the present study was to develop a novel and economic reclaiming process that does not adversely affect the quality of rubber and to investigate methods of utilising the reclaim. Since waste latex products represent a potential source of high quality rubber hydrocarbon, it was decided to develop a process based on such latex wastes. The study revealed that latex reclaim could replace raw natural rubber upto about 50 per cent of its weight without any serious deterioration in mechanical properties.

Studies On Vulcanization, Rheology And Reinforcement Of Natural Rubber Latex With Special Reference To Accelerator Combinations, Surface Active Agents And Gamma Irradiation

In the present work, studies on vulcanization, rheology and reinforcement of natural rubber latex with special reference to accelerator combinations, surface active agents and gamma irradiation have been undertaken. In vulcanization, the choice of vulcanization system, the extent and mc-zie of vulcanization and network structure of the vulcanizate are important factors contributing to the overall quality of the product. The vulcanization system may be conventional type using elemental sulfur or a system involving sulfur donors. The latter type is used mainly in the manufacture of heat resistant products. For improving the technical properties of the products such as modulus and tensile strength, different accelerator combinations are used. It is known that accelerators have a strong effect on the physical properties of rubber vulcanizates. A perusal of the literature indicates that fundamental studies on the above aspects of latex technology are very limited. Thereforea systematic study on vulcanization, rheology and reinforcement of natural rubber latex with reference to the effect of accelerator combinations, surface active agents and gamma irradiation has been undertaken. The preparation and evaluation of some products like latex thread was also undertaken as a part of the study. The thesis consists of six chapter

Preparation and characterization of micro and nano fiber reinforced natural rubber composites by latex stage processing

Use of short fibers as reinforcing fillers in rubber composites is on an increasing trend. They are popular due to the possibility of obtaining anisotropic properties, ease of processing and economy. In the preparation of these composites short fibers are incorporated on two roll mixing mills or in internal mixers. This is a high energy intensive time consuming process. This calls for developing less energy intensive and less time consuming processes for incorporation and distribution of short fibers in the rubber matrix. One method for this is to incorporate fibers in the latex stage. The present study is primarily to optimize the preparation of short fiber- natural rubber composite by latex stage compounding and to evaluate the resulting composites in terms of mechanical, dynamic mechanical and thermal properties. A synthetic fiber (Nylon) and a natural fiber (Coir) are used to evaluate the advantages of the processing through latex stage. To extract the full reinforcing potential of the coir fibers the macro fibers are converted to micro fibers through chemical and mechanical means. The thesis is presented in 7 chapters

Microbial Treatment Of Rubber Latex Centrifugation Effluent

Many of the existing methods for the treatment of rubber latex centrifugation eflluent are not only unsatisfactory in their efliciency to effect near perfect treatment in bringing down the COD to optimum level, but also time consuming and need a large landspace. As the rate of effluent generation is extremely high (20 litres for kilogram of rubber) there is a need for development of efficient system,capable of rapid reduction of COD and BOD. Though the organic load of the rubber efiluent is very high, it does not contain much processed chemicals and therefore it can be considered as a ‘biological eflluent’. Further, the ratio of the Chemical Oxygen Demand to Biological Oxygen Demand (COD/BOD) of this effluent remain almost as a constant value. According to Montgomery (1967), estimation of BOD is not ideally suited for studies on process design, treatability, control of treatment plants, setting standards for treated effluents and assessing the effect of polluting discharges on the oxygen resources of receiving waters. Hence in the present study COD was measured to determine the impact of treatment system on the effluent. In the present study, attempts were made to evaluate the efficiencies of certain methods such as packed bed reactor using immobilized microbial cells, rotating biological contactor (RBC) and activated sludge process, for rapid and efficient treatment of natural rubber latex centrifugation effluent. In addition, studies were also carn'ed out to develop a suitable bioprocess for the coagulation of skim latex, as an alternative to the presently used acid coagulation process towards reducing the pollution load, besides recovering quality rubber

A Novel Acinetobacter Sp. For 'Treating Highly Acidic Rubber Latex Cen'trifugation Effluent

A novel Acinetobacter sp. BTJR-IO isolated from highly acidic (pH 2.5-4.5) rubber latex centrifugation effluent with high COD (22000 rng/L) and BOD (5000 rng/L). This strain could effect 39.5% COD reduction on free cell inoculation of effluent without incorporation of additional nutrients after 8 days. CalciLnn alginate irrmobilized cells showed 16.4% and 25% COD reduction after 6 hra, without aeration and after 1 hr. with mild aeration under batch process respectively. Whereas 44.0% COD reduction could be achieved after 6 hrs. on continuous treatment in a packed bed reactor with mild aeration. Further, even after 3 cycles 37% COD reduction was recorded with continuous treatment

Marine bacterial prodigiosin as dye for rubber latex, polymethyl methacrylate sheets and paper

Prodigiosin is known for its immunomodulatory, antibacterial, antimycotic, antimalarial, algicidal and anticancer activities. Here, we reported the evaluation of prodigiosin pigment as a dyeing agent in rubber latex, paper and polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) so that it can be considered as an alternative to synthetic pigments. Maximum color shade was obtained in rubber sheet prepared with 0.5 parts per hundred gram of rubber (phr) pigment and PMMA sheet incorporated with 0.08 μg pigment. Results indicate scope for utilization of prodigiosin as dye for PMMA and rubber and also prodigiosin dyed paper as a pH indicator. Further, being a natural and water insoluble pigment, it is ecofriendly

Natural Rubber Latex Filler Masterbatch by Soap Sensitised Coagulation-Preparation, Processing and Evaluation

Sensitisation of natural rubber latex by addition of a small quantity of an anionic surfactant prior to the addition of a coacervant results in quick coagulation. The natural rubber prepared by the novel coagulation method shows improved raw rubber characteristics, better cure characteristics in gum and carbon black filled compounds and improved mechanical properties as compared to the conventionally coagulated natural rubber. Compounds based on dried masterbatches prepared by the incorporation of fluffy carbon black in different forms of soap sensitised natural rubber latices such as fresh latex, preserved field latex, centrifuged latex and a blend of preserved field latex and skim latex show improved cure characteristics and vucanizate properties as compared to an equivalent conventional dry rubber-fluffy carbon black based compound. The latex masterbatch based vulcanizates show higher level of crosslinking and better dispersion of filler. Vulcanizates based on fresh natural rubber latex- dual filler masterbatches containing a blend of carbon black and silica prepared by the modified coagulation process shows very good mechanical and dynamic properties that could be correlated to a low rolling resistance. The carbon black/silica/nanoclay tri-filler - fresh natural rubber latex masterbatch based vulcanizates show improved mechanical properties as the proportion of nanoclay increased up to 5 phr. The fresh natural rubber latex based carbon black-silica masterbatch/ polybutadiene blend vulcanizates show superior mechanical and dynamic properties as compared to the equivalent compound vulcanizates prepared from the dry natural rubber-filler (conventional dry mix)/polybutadiene blends

Statistical inference of OH concentrations and air mass dilution rates from successive observations of non-methane hydrocarbons in single air masses

Bayesian inference has been used to determine rigorous estimates of hydroxyl radical concentrations () and air mass dilution rates (K) averaged following air masses between linked observations of nonmethane hydrocarbons (NMHCs) spanning the North Atlantic during the Intercontinental Transport and Chemical Transformation (ITCT)-Lagrangian-2K4 experiment. The Bayesian technique obtains a refined (posterior) distribution of a parameter given data related to the parameter through a model and prior beliefs about the parameter distribution. Here, the model describes hydrocarbon loss through OH reaction and mixing with a background concentration at rate K. The Lagrangian experiment provides direct observations of hydrocarbons at two time points, removing assumptions regarding composition or sources upstream of a single observation. The estimates are sharpened by using many hydrocarbons with different reactivities and accounting for their variability and measurement uncertainty. A novel technique is used to construct prior background distributions of many species, described by variation of a single parameter . This exploits the high correlation of species, related by the first principal component of many NMHC samples. The Bayesian method obtains posterior estimates of , K and following each air mass. Median values are typically between 0.5 and 2.0 × 106 molecules cm−3, but are elevated to between 2.5 and 3.5 × 106 molecules cm−3, in low-level pollution. A comparison of estimates from absolute NMHC concentrations and NMHC ratios assuming zero background (the “photochemical clock” method) shows similar distributions but reveals systematic high bias in the estimates from ratios. Estimates of K are ∼0.1 day−1 but show more sensitivity to the prior distribution assumed.

Estimating numbers of infectious units from serial dilution assays

The paper concerns the design and analysis of serial dilution assays to estimate the infectivity of a sample of tissue when it is assumed that the sample contains a finite number of indivisible infectious units such that a subsample will be infectious if it contains one or more of these units. The aim of the study is to estimate the number of infectious units in the original sample. The standard approach to the analysis of data from such a study is based on the assumption of independence of aliquots both at the same dilution level and at different dilution levels, so that the numbers of infectious units in the aliquots follow independent Poisson distributions. An alternative approach is based on calculation of the expected value of the total number of samples tested that are not infectious. We derive the likelihood for the data on the basis of the discrete number of infectious units, enabling calculation of the maximum likelihood estimate and likelihood-based confidence intervals. We use the exact probabilities that are obtained to compare the maximum likelihood estimate with those given by the other methods in terms of bias and standard error and to compare the coverage of the confidence intervals. We show that the methods have very similar properties and conclude that for practical use the method that is based on the Poisson assumption is to be recommended, since it can be implemented by using standard statistical software. Finally we consider the design of serial dilution assays, concluding that it is important that neither the dilution factor nor the number of samples that remain untested should be too large.

An isotope dilution model for partitioning phenylalanine uptake by the liver of lactating dairy cows

An isotope dilution model for partitioning phenylalanine uptake by the liver of the lactating dairy cow was constructed and solved in the steady state. If assumptions are made, model solution permits calculation of the rate of phenylalanine uptake from portal vein and hepatic arterial blood supply, phenylalanine release into the hepatic vein, phenylalanine oxidation and synthesis, and degradation of hepatic constitutive and export proteins. The model requires the measurement of plasma fow rate through the liver in combination with phenylalanine concentrations and plateau isotopic enrichments in arterial, portal and hepatic plasma during a constant infusion of [1-13C]phenylalanine tracer. The model can be applied to other amino acids with similar metabolic fates and will provide a means for assessing the impact of hepatic metabolism on amino acid availability to peripheral tissues. This is of particular importance for the dairy cow when considering the requirements for milk protein synthesis and the negative environmental impact of excessive nitrogen excretion.