Correlation between dry rubber content in field latex and viscosity measured with efflux time method

Abstract

Viscosity of field latex was determined with a horizontal capillary viscometer connected to a vertical reservoir tube.The flow behavior shows that the viscosity of rubber latex increased exponentially with dry rubber content (DRC). The linearrelation between viscosity and DRC was obtained when DRC is less than 8 wt%. However, further dilution seems to givemore discrepancies because of experimental errors. Therefore, the maximum DRC that is still on the linear relation should beapplied in order to minimize the experimental errors while making the effect of dissolved solids in rubber latex negligible.The viscosity of diluted latex was also checked with the rotational viscometer, which gave the confirmation that dilutioncould shield the effect of dissolved solids. The experiment showed that the efflux time method could predict the DRC well inthe range of 9-10 wt%.

Keywords

• natural rubber
• latex
• dry rubber content
• viscosity
• efflux time