Authors: Kenichiro Kosugi Seiichi Kawahara
Publish Date: 2014/09/23
Volume: 293, Issue: 1, Pages: 135-141
Abstract
Naturally occurring nanomatrix structure formed in natural rubber was observed with a field emission scanning electron microscope equipped with a focused ion beam FIBSEM and it was related to viscoelastic properties of the rubber Film specimen used for the FIBSEM observation was prepared from serum fraction of natural rubber latex in which serum rubber contained about 15 w/w proteins Morphology of the film specimen was observed by FIBSEM after pinning the nanomatrix structure with glutaraldehyde followed by staining the serum rubber with OsO4 Threedimensional image of the nanomatrix structure was successfully reconstructed in mesoscale without defects and voids in which rubber particles of 200 nm in diameter were dispersed in the matrix of nonrubber components such as the proteins and phospholipids of several 10 nm in thickness Storage modulus at plateau region of the serum rubber was about 500 times as high as that of deproteinized natural rubber suggesting that the nanomatrix of the nonrubber components was completely continuous
Keywords: