Effects of wood vinegar as an additive for natural rubber products

Abstract

Wood vinegar, a product of wood burning in airless condition, is well known as an all- purpose natural chemical, since it can beused in agricultural, food, and pharmaceutical industries, even for home care products. Because of its acidity and anti microorganismgrowth property, it is of interest to use wood vinegar for rubber products by fully or partially replacing the usage oftraditional acids in the production processes. This work is to study effects of crude coconut shell wood vinegar on naturalrubber products. The experiment was conducted by introducing various concentrations of wood vinegar to block and sheetrubbers. Results showed that wood vinegar can improve initial plasticity, plasticity retention index and Mooney viscosity ofrubber products. Moreover, it can also retard the growth of fungi in the products.

Keywords

• wood vinegar
• natural rubber
• plasticity retention index
• Mooney viscosity
• anti fungi