Mechanism of graft copolymerization of styrene onto deproteinized natural rubber

High conversion and high grafting efficiency attained by graft copolymerization of styrene onto deproteinized natural rubber (DPNR) was investigated with respect to the molecular weight of grafted polystyrene. The graft copolymerization was performed with tert-butyl hydroperoxide/tetraethylenepentamine as an initiator after deproteinization of natural rubber with urea. Grafted polystyrene was isolated from the resulting graft copolymer by ozonolysis reaction. After the ozonolysis of the graft copolymer of DPNR and polystyrene (DPNR-g-PS), the molecular weight of grafted polystyrene was determined by size exclusion chromatography. Effects of initiator and monomer concentrations were investigated with respect to the molecular weight of the grafted polystyrene, which was found to depend on not only the number of active site generated on the rubber particle but also the feed of styrene. Deactivation and chain transfer of the active sites were attributed to effective amount of styrene used for the graft copolymerization.