Effect of filler water absorption on water swelling properties of natural rubber

The efficient water swelling rubber can be obtained by using high hydrophilic rubber such as chloroprene rubber. However, chloroprene rubber is synthetic rubber developed from the petroleum. Recently, many researches try to replace the usage of synthetic rubber with natural rubber. This is not only due to the concerning of environment but the cost reduction as well. However, natural rubber is hydrophobic, thus not absorbing water. To develop the water swelling rubber from natural rubber, the addition of water absorption filler is needed. The study was aimed to formulate water swelling rubber from natural rubber filled with sodium polyacrylate (SA)/sodium bentonite clay (SBC) hybrid filler used to water absorbent. The filler loading was kept constantly at 150 phr. The effect of SA/SBC ratio varied from 1: 0, 1: 1, 1: 2 and 1: 3 on the water absorption of the hybrid filled natural rubber was determined. The obtained result showed that the water adsorption proportionally increased with increasing SA loading but decreased with increasing SBC loading. The effect of glycidyl methacrylate (GM) and poly ethylene glycol (PEG) on the water absorption was studied later. The result from a scanning electron microscope depicted that the presence of GM can depress the falling out of SA from the rubber matrix while the presence of PEG increased water absorption.