Coagulation methods and drying step are the key drivers of the dynamics of structuration of natural rubber during the maturation of coagula

The evolution of the mesostructure (structuring dynamics) of natural rubber (NR) during maturation after different modes of coagulation is poorly known, especially inside wet coagula. Therefore, coagula made from 3 different coagulation modes (sulfuric acid, formic acid, and natural coagulations) with different maturation durations (0, 2, 9, 16, 30, and 44 days) were studied. The mesostructure of NR samples was analyzed using SEC-MALS on wet coagula and on wet and dry crepes. For wet coagula coagulated with acids, only Mz and Mw decreased slightly with maturation time, while Mn and Gel>1 mu had no significant evolution during maturation. On the other hand, for wet coagula after natural coagulation, all mesostructure indicators evolved significantly with maturation time. The results showed that structuration increased along maturation time, generating microaggregates with larger size and more structured macrogel inside wet coagula after natural coagulation. This study found that creping process (comparison of wet coagula and wet crepes) had only a moderate effect on the structuration of NR samples. However, the drying process (comparison of wet and dry crepes) had an important effect on the structuration of rubber, especially for natural coagulation and formic acid coagulation. Coagulation with sulfuric acid appeared to slow down the phenomena related to the structuration of microaggregates and macrogel.