The bio- and thermal degradation as well as the water absorption properties of a novel biocomposite comprising cellulose nanoparticles, natural rubber and polylactic acid have been investigated. The biodegradation process was studied through an assembled condition based on the soil collected from the central Malaysian palm oil forests located in the University of Nottingham Malaysia. The effects of the presence of the cellulose nanoparticles and natural rubber on the biodegradation of polylactic acid were investigated. The biodegradation process was studied via thermal gravimetric analysis and scanning electron microscopy. It was understood that the reinforcement of polylactic acid with cellulose nanoparticles and natural rubber increases the thermal stability by ~ 20 °C. Limited amorphous regions on the surface of the cellulose nanoparticles accelerated the biodegradation and water absorption processes. Based on the obtained results, it is predicted that complete biodegradation of the synthesised biocomposites can take place in 3062 h, highlighting promising agricultural applications for this biocomposite.
Generally, a base isolator is made up of alternate layers of steel and rubber. The idea of adopting magnetoreological elastomers (MREs) in base isolator systems was introduced in the past few years in order to improve the efficiency of base isolator systems. The article provides information on the mechanical corresponding to different carbon black loading loadings of 20 parts per hundred rubber (pphr), 40 pphr and 60 pphr in natural rubber compound. The mechanical dataset described the data from tensile, hardness and rebound test.
Researchers are exploring the utilisation of reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) as a recycled material to determine the performance of non-renewable natural aggregates and other road products such as asphalt binder, in the construction and rehabilitation stage of asphalt pavements. The addition of RAP in asphalt mixtures is a complex process and there is a need to understand the design of the asphalt mixture. Some of the problems associated with adding RAP to asphalt mixtures are moisture damage and cracking damage caused by poor adhesion between the aggregates and asphalt binder. There is a need to add rejuvenators to the recycled mixture containing RAP to enhance its performance, excepting the rutting resistance. This study sought to improve asphalt mixture performance and mechanism by adding waste frying oil (WFO) and crumb rubber (CR) to 25 and 40% of the RAP content. Moreover, the utilisation of CR and WFO improved pavement sustainability and rutting performance. In addition, this study prepared five asphalt mixture samples and compared their stiffness, moisture damage and rutting resistance with the virgin asphalt. The results showed enhanced stiffness and rutting resistance of the RAP but lower moisture resistance. The addition of WFO and CR restored the RAP properties and produced rutting resistance, moisture damage and stiffness, which were comparable to the virgin asphalt mixture. All waste and virgin materials produce homogeneous asphalt mixtures, which influence the asphalt mixture performance. The addition of a high amount of WFO and a small amount of CR enhanced pavement sustainability and rutting performance.
The sustainability of nitrile glove production process is essential both in the financial and energy perspective. Nitrile glove has the lowest material cost with positive mechanical and chemical performance quality for the disposable glove market. Nitrile glove also holds a major market in disposable gloves sector, and nitrile rubber compounds may contribute to the huge reduction of the capital cost for a pair of surgical gloves due to the inexpensive raw material compares with other synthetic polyisoprene or neoprene. Hence, blending of bio-additive into the nitrile latex might support the 3 pillars of sustainability for environmental, societal, and financial sector. Bio-additives helps increase the degradation rate of gloves under natural conditions. Bio-based substances could be derived from food waste, natural plants, and aquatic plants like micro- and macro algae. Furthermore, antimicrobial agent (e.g. brilliant green and cyclohexadiene) is the trend in surgical glove for coated as protecting layer, due to the capability to remove pathogens or bacterial on the surgeon hands during operation period. Besides, the section in energy recovery is a proposing gateway for reducing the financial cost and makes the process sustainable.
The main objective of this paper is to investigate the relations of rubber size, rubber content, and binder content in determination of optimum binder content for open graded friction course (OGFC). Mix gradation type B as specified in Specification for Porous Asphalt produced by the Road Engineering Association of Malaysia (REAM) was used in this study. Marshall specimens were prepared with four different sizes of rubber, namely, 20 mesh size [0.841 mm], 40 mesh [0.42 mm], 80 mesh [0.177 mm], and 100 mesh [0.149 mm] with different concentrations of rubberised bitumen (4%, 8%, and 12%) and different percentages of binder content (4%-7%). The appropriate optimum binder content is then selected according to the results of the air voids, binder draindown, and abrasion loss test. Test results found that crumb rubber particle size can affect the optimum binder content for OGFC.
An immense problem affecting environmental pollution is the increase of waste tyre vehicles. In an attempt to decrease the magnitude of this issue, crumb rubber modifier (CRM) obtained from waste tyre rubber has gained interest in asphalt reinforcement. The use of crumb rubber in the reinforcement of asphalt is considered as a smart solution for sustainable development by reusing waste materials, and it is believed that crumb rubber modifier (CRM) could be an alternative polymer material in improving hot mix asphalt performance properties. In this paper, a critical review on the use of crumb rubber in reinforcement of asphalt pavement will be presented and discussed. It will also include a review on the effects of CRM on the stiffness, rutting, and fatigue resistance of road pavement construction.
A structural study of epoxidized natural rubber (ENR-50) and its cyclic dithiocarbonate derivative was carried out using NMR spectroscopy techniques. The overlapping (1)H-NMR signals of ENR-50 at δ 1.56, 1.68-1.70, 2.06, 2.15-2.17 ppm were successfully assigned. In this work, the C=S and quaternary carbon of cyclic dithiocarbonate. All other (1)H- and (13)C-NMR chemical shifts of the derivative remain unchanged with respect to the ENR-50.
Natural rubber from hevea brasiliensis trees (Thailand, RRIM 600 clone) of different age (8, 20, and 35 years) were characterized by size exclusion chromatography coupled with online viscometry according to their distribution of molar mass and branching index at a temperature of 70 degrees C using cyclohexane as solvent. Washing with an aqueous solution of sodium dodecylsulfate and subsequent saponification purified the natural rubber samples. With this procedure physical branching points caused by phospholipids, proteins and hydrophobic terminal units, mainly fatty acids, of the natural rubber (cis-1,4-polyisoprene) molecule, could be removed leading to completely soluble polymer samples. All samples investigated possess a very broad (10 to 50,000 kg/mol) and distinct bimodal molar mass distribution. With increasing age the peak area in the low molar mass region decreases favoring the peak area in the high molar mass region. By plotting the branching index as a function of the both, the molar mass and the age of the trees.
Currently, there are >11,000 synthetic turf athletic fields in the United States and >13,000 in Europe. Concerns have been raised about exposure to carcinogenic chemicals resulting from contact with synthetic turf fields, particularly the infill material ("crumb rubber"), which is commonly fabricated from recycled tires. However, exposure data are scant, and the limited existing exposure studies have focused on a small subset of crumb rubber components. Our objective was to evaluate the carcinogenic potential of a broad range of chemical components of crumb rubber infill using computational toxicology and regulatory agency classifications from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) and European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) to inform future exposure studies and risk analyses. Through a literature review, we identified 306 chemical constituents of crumb rubber infill from 20 publications. Utilizing ADMET Predictor™, a computational program to predict carcinogenicity and genotoxicity, 197 of the identified 306 chemicals met our a priori carcinogenicity criteria. Of these, 52 chemicals were also classified as known, presumed or suspected carcinogens by the US EPA and ECHA. Of the remaining 109 chemicals which were not predicted to be carcinogenic by our computational toxicology analysis, only 6 chemicals were classified as presumed or suspected human carcinogens by US EPA or ECHA. Importantly, the majority of crumb rubber constituents were not listed in the US EPA (n = 207) and ECHA (n = 262) databases, likely due to an absence of evaluation or insufficient information for a reliable carcinogenicity classification. By employing a cancer hazard scoring system to the chemicals which were predicted and classified by the computational analysis and government databases, several high priority carcinogens were identified, including benzene, benzidine, benzo(a)pyrene, trichloroethylene and vinyl chloride. Our findings demonstrate that computational toxicology assessment in conjunction with government classifications can be used to prioritize hazardous chemicals for future exposure monitoring studies for users of synthetic turf fields. This approach could be extended to other compounds or toxicity endpoints.
The utility of a phantom material, based on SMR(L) [Standard Malaysian Rubber] grade natural rubber and a formulation used for the proprietary rubber phantom-material, Temex, has been examined for the 1-MeV photon-Measurement has also been performed with 60-keV photons using the radionuclide 241Am. At photon-therapy energy levels the measured response, when compared with tabulated central-axis percentage depth doses for the defined measuring conditions, produces everywhere (in the range 1-19 cm depth) better than 2% deviation. The favourable measured response characteristics combined with the ease of processing and casting the phantom material provide the basis for useful radiotherapy machine calibration and anthropomorphic dosimetry measurements. The measured mass-attenuation coefficient, at 60keV, of 0.204 cm2 g-1 (+/- 3%) is in close agreement with tabulated values for water (0.2055 cm2 g-1).
Streptomyces sp. strain CFMR 7, which naturally degrades rubber, was isolated from a rubber plantation. Whole genome sequencing and assembly resulted in 2 contigs with total genome size of 8.248 Mb. Two latex clearing protein (lcp) genes which are responsible for rubber degrading activities were identified.
This study investigated the accumulation of debris at four sites, namely, Gebeng, Batu Hitam, Cherok Paloh, and Air Leleh, along the Pahang coastline, Peninsular Malaysia from March 2019 to February 2020. Plastic was the dominant debris (86.1%) and followed by cloth/fabric-based debris (6.0%), processed lumber debris (3.3%), rubber (2.7%), glass (1.5%), and metal (0.4%). The land-based debris (82.0%) was the major source of the deposition of marine waste. A statistically significant relationship was found between the seasonal variation and marine debris density in tidal and seasonal current along the Pahang coastline. In general, the Northeast Monsoon season had a higher amount of debris than the Southwest Monsoon season.
This article aims to provide insights into the factors that contribute to the separation efficiency of solid particles. In this study, a pneumatic jigging technique was used to assess the separation of solid waste materials that consisted of copper, glass and rubber insulator. Several initial experiments were carried out to evaluate the strengths and limitations of the technique. It is found that despite some limitations of the technique, all the samples prepared for the experiments were successfully separated. The follow-up experiments were then carried out to further assess the separation of copper wire and rubber insulator. The effects of air flow and pulse rates on the separation process were examined. The data for these follow-up experiments were analysed using a sink float analysis technique. The analysis shows that the air flow rate was very important in determining the separation efficiency. However, the separation efficiency may be influenced by the type of materials used.
Thermoplastic natural rubber sample is found isotropic based on SAXS pattern. Morphological parameter was obtained based on ideal lamellar morphology using 1-D correlation function. The fitting was carried out using Porod tail model and Vonk for back-extrapolated model. It is found that the long period value is 15.7nm which is comparable to results obtained from Lorents corrected profile, 20nm. Crystalline thickness and amorphous thickness was found as 13.4 and 2.31nm respectively
The thermal conductivity of boron carbide filled thermoplastic natural rubber blend composite is studied experimentally as a function of filler loading and filler size. A polymer blend of 60/40 NR/HDPE was used as matrix for incorporation of particulate nano- and micro-sized B4C as filler to form the composite. As the filler loading is increased from 2-10%wt, a reduction and increment of thermal conductivity was observed. The results show at lower filler loading, HDPE crystallinity affects the thermal conductivity up to 4 and 6%wt of filler for nano- and micro-composite respectively. Further increase the loading do not much alter the crystallinity as the filler is distributed in continues phase of NR. The increment of filler amount in the amorphous NR causes the thermal conductivity to gradually increase which indicates the formation of interconnecting filler network structures
Reclaimed rubber from rejected natural rubber (NR) latex gloves (r-NRG) was evaluated as partial
replacement for Standard Malaysian Rubber (SMR) 20 in producing microcellular rubber. In the study, the amount of reclaimed rubber varied from 20 pphr to 95 pphr for the purpose of cost reduction, environmental interest and as processing aids in reducing internal porosity, swells and to minimize shrinkage and air-trapped problems in producing microcellular rubber. A typical formulation in making microcellular rubber slab was developed and two-roll mill was used for compounding. The cure characteristics and mechanical properties, such as density, hardness, tensile strength, and elongation at break, were evaluated. Scorch time and cure rate index performed marginal decreased with increasing of r-NRG content. 95 pphr r-NRG blends showed a consequential drop in hardness. Both tensile properties and elongation at break decreased as the r-NRG content was increased.
Chemical interesterification of rubber seed oil has been investigated for four different designed orifice devices in a pilot scale hydrodynamic cavitation (HC) system. Upstream pressure within 1-3.5bar induced cavities to intensify the process. An optimal orifice plate geometry was considered as plate with 1mm dia hole having 21 holes at 3bar inlet pressure. The optimisation results of interesterification were revealed by response surface methodology; methyl acetate to oil molar ratio of 14:1, catalyst amount of 0.75wt.% and reaction time of 20min at 50°C. HC is compared to mechanical stirring (MS) at optimised values. The reaction rate constant and the frequency factor of HC were 3.4-fold shorter and 3.2-fold higher than MS. The interesterified product was characterised by following EN 14214 and ASTM D 6751 international standards.