Investigation of Structure-Properties Relationship of High Performance TPV Based on ENR/TPU
Thermoplastic natural rubber based on blending of ENR-50/TPU and un-modified NR/TPU was prepared via dynamic vulcanization technique. Influences types of natural rubber (i.e., un-modified NR and ENR-50) on mechanical and morphological properties of the blends were investigated. It was found that the blends with ENR-50 exhibited superior properties than that of the blend with unmodified NR. This is attributed to the interactions between the functional groups of ENR molecules and polar functional groups in TPU molecules which caused higher interfacial adhesion and interaction between both phases. The chemical interactions were confirmed by ATR-FTIR. Furthermore, it was found that the ENR-50/TPU blend showed smaller and finer grain morphology compared with the un-modified NR/TPU.