Effect of poly(methyl methacrylate)-modified natural rubber on the mechanical properties of poly (methyl methacrylate) Siew Kooi Ong a,⇑ , Khaliesah Abbas a , Fahmi Asyadi Md Yusof a , Azanam Shah Hashim b a Universiti Kuala Lumpur Branch Campus Malaysian Institute of Chemical & Bioengineering Technology (UniKL MICET), Lot 1988, Kawasan Perindustrian Bandar Vendor, Taboh Naning, 78000 Alor Gajah, Melaka, Malaysia b Universiti Sains Malaysia, 143000 Nibong Tebal, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia article info Article history: Received 8 October 2019 Received in revised form 18 January 2020 Accepted 22 January 2020 Available online xxxx Keywords: PMMA/MNR blend Processing temperature Rotor speed Shear rate Mixing time abstract Poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) is a hard and brittle thermoplastic. Thus, its application is limited. PMMA-modified natural rubber (MNR) is a NR derivative which was synthesized in the laboratory. MNR has lower glass transition temperature, Tg as compare to PMMA. This research utilized the modified dynamic vulcanization which rubber was separately compounded with curatives by using a two-roll mill and the resultant rubber compound was added into PMMA during melt mixing. This technique effectively reduces the limitation of the mixing rate and dispersion of curatives in both the thermoplastic and elas- tomer components can be improvement. The blend of PMMA/MNR is expected to produce a physical blend with better mechanical properties at optimum melt mixing parameters. Based on investigation done for different parameters (processing temperature, shear rate measured via rotor speed and total missing time), the recommended melt mixing parameters are given at processing temperature of 200 °C, rotor speed of 50 rpm and total mixing time of 8 min. This technique produces blends with opti- mum properties, as opposed to prolonged shear technique which produce negative effect to PMMA/MNR blend. Ó 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Selection and Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 4th International Con- ference on Green Chemical Engineering and Technology: Materials Science. 1. Introduction The incorporation of elastomeric particles into the bulk of ther- moplastic brittle polymers is a well-known technique used to improve the toughness of thermoplastics. This technique is applied on the commercial high impact polystyrene (HIPS), where the polystyrene (PS) is blended with rubbers like polybutadiene or copolymers with styrene. Besides PS, similar blends with Poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) are also reported [1,3]. Theoreti- cally, a better blend can be produced by dynamic [2]. The principle of dynamic vulcanization is by in-situ curing of the rubber compo- nent in thermoplastic blend via an intensive or kneading process. Conventionally, the curatives are usually added during the melt mixing process. However, for this research, a modified dynamic vulcanization was used. Modified natural rubber (MNR) was sepa- rately compounded with curatives by using a two-roll mill and the resultant MNR compound was added into PMMA during melt mix- ing. Based on a previous study [4], a conventional dynamic vulcan- ization was found to be less effective due to the limitation of the mixing rate and that the curatives tend to be dispersed in both the thermoplastic and elastomer components. The limitation of the mixing rate leads to a poor dispersion of the curatives, while the dispersion of curatives in the thermoplastic causes the curing system to be less effective. In this research, effect of processing parameters on PMMA toughened with modified natural rubber (MNR) PMMA/MNR blends at 5 wt% MNR loading with curative (cured by using semi-EV recipe) will be evaluated to decide the most suitable processing conditions for PMMA/MNR blends. The controlled parameters including processing temperature, shear rate measured via rotor speed and total mixing time had to be con- firmed in order to produce PMMA/MNR blends with optimum properties Fig. 1. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.01.396 2214-7853/Ó 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Selection and Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 4th International Conference on Green Chemical Engineering and Technology: Materials Science. ⇑ Corresponding author. E-mail address: skong@unikl.edu.my (S.K. Ong). Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Materials Today: Proceedings journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/matpr Please cite this article as: S. K. Ong, K. Abbas, F. A. Md Yusof et al., Effect of poly(methyl methacrylate)-modified natural rubber on the mechanical prop- erties of poly (methyl methacrylate), Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.01.396