Effect of Starch Nanocrystals on Natural Rubber Latex Vulcanizate Properties

The incorporation of bio-nanofillers such as starch nanocrystals (SNC) in polymer matrices received much attention owing to their biodegradable nature. In this work, starch nanocrystals have been isolated from modified corn starch by acid hydrolysis and their efficacy as a potential bio-filler for natural rubber latex (NR) has been explored. The quality of the SNC suspension was confirmed from dynamic light scattering (DLS) studies and X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements. For the fabrication of nanocomposites of NR with corn starch crystals, a simple latex stage mixing procedure was employed. The platelet-like morphology of corn starch nanocrystals improved the barrier properties of NR based vulcanizates with the addition of the SNC suspension