Disinfectant Natural Rubber/Tire Waste Blends Prepared from Melt and Latex Processes for Extending Natural Rubber Applications

Studies of natural rubber (NR) composites for applying into applicable elastic materials have been more restricted since there are no additional specific properties to the final products and also the NR waste has not met the global requirement of carbon neutral, biodegradation and recyclability. To overcome such evidence, new functional properties of NR have to be researched correlating the industrial requirement under the proposed of appropriated usability cycles. We therefore serve the two effective ways for increasing the opportunity of NR applications based on the disinfect ability and recyclability relating the needs of interviewees together with the intra- and international manufacturers. It was found that approximately 95% of the interviewers need most products of NR to be disinfectant and recycled matters. This causes opportunities for applying the in-house modified ZnO nanoparticles into the NR products following melt and latex mixing processes. Such preparation procedures are recognized as the official processing for several NR products i.e., condoms, gloves, artificial skin, shoes, auto parts, mattresses and so on. The embed of ZnO releases ROS and Zn²⁺ to the NR surfaces and kills both gram-negative and positive bacterias for over 90% for at least 24 h. In the past, we found that the use of ZnO by coating onto CaCO₃ surfaces causes potentially the improvement of ZnO dispersion and that about 90% of anti-microorganism was received within 12 h of incubation. Also, the mechanical and dynamic mechanical properties of the vulcanized NR are reduced significantly. Thus, according to our best knowledge on preparation the disinfectant NR, killing bacteria efficiency has strong correlated to the movement and transferring of the effective Zn²⁺and O^* ions throughout NR matrix, so that the addition of suitable filler can be the way for improving drastically the antimicrobial activity absorbing on the targeted specimens. Enhancement of Zn+ and ROS inside the NR is proposed in the present work based on using of modified ZnO through silica nanoparticles (SiO₂) for with and without surfactant double modification, and also the addition of tire waste powder which contained high amount of ZnO inside such rubber and the ions from such ZnO can be released during activating states in the NR matrix. In addition, the use of the epoxidized NR (ENR) replacing NR was also found to be effective enough for activating cationic ions shifting on the hydrocarbon NR molecular chains. After finding properties of the balanced mechanical and anti-bacterial properties, the comparable results will then be compared, and the disinfectant degree will be checked for approximately 90-99% within 5 min. This would finally disrupt the official elastic antibacterial properties of the NR products. However, in the closed chapter, strong potential of the triangle of mechanical properties, disinfectant efficiency and recyclability were examined. Also, due to the specific channels, several using abilities will be proposed and varios NR and ENR products have to be fitted.