Hydrogenation of Liquid Natural Rubber Using 2,4,6-Trimethylbenzenesulfonylhydrazide: Optimisation of Reaction Parameters via Response Surface Methodology

Hydrogenation of liquid natural rubber (LNR) using 2,4,6-trimethylbenzenesulfonylhydrazide (MSH) in toluene was studied. HLNR structure was characterized by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Response surface methodology (RSM) based on 5-level-2-factor central composite rotatable design (CCRD) was used to analyze the correlative effects of reaction, MSH:LNR weight ratio (0.5-1.0) and reaction time (20-60 min) with a fixed reaction temperature of 100 degrees C. Multivariate statistical analysis was developed in a form of quadratic model in order to correlate the reaction parameter to the response received. The optimum conditions derived via RSM were the MSH:LNR weight ratio of 0.7 and a reaction time of 25.86 min. The R-2 value of 0.9557 showed that the model was well-fitted with the experimental data, whereby the model was almost ideal while the lack-of-fit considered rather unseemly (i.e. insignificant).