Biodegrade Nitrile rubber

[Asanka]

Dear all, Can you suggest how to make NBRubber to biodegradable

[Asanka]

any one knows a suggestion, pls reply.

[EdEarl]

Welcome to SFN.

I am unable to answer your question. Apparently, no one else can either.

[John Cuthber]

Apparently, nobody here had chosen to answer it that quickly.

IIRC one of the early methods for making plastics more degradable was to mix the polymer with starch. It wasn't great, but at least when the mircobes ate the starch the product fell apart.

 

The word biodegradable isn't very well defined so the question is difficult to answer.

Also, since NBR isn't biodegradable, if you converted it into something which did biodegrade, you wouldn't have NBR any more.

Whether the material would still be usable is another matter.

[Enthalpy]

NBR is already a copolymer. What about adding one momomer more that would introduce sequences edible by bio-agents?

 

Sorry if I put nonsense, I'm weak on chemistry.

[Asanka]

By adding PHA or PHB as a filller . can NRB biodegradable ?

[Ophiolite]

I'm not sure if that would work, but it wold certainly degrade the properties of the NBR. What application is the NBR to be used in?

[Enthalpy]

NBR is commonly used as a seal joint material, and provided someone wants it to biodegrade, a PHB filler doesn't look that promising:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyhydroxybutyrate

 

- High permeability

- Poor resistance to acids and bases (but might match hydraulic oil)

- I would not use a rigid filler in an elastomer! Why should a filler be better than a copolymer?

[John Cuthber]

Realistically, unless someone who has actually done this turns up and answers, the only way to find out is to try it.

[Ophiolite]

NBR is commonly used as a seal joint material, and provided someone wants it to biodegrade, a PHB filler doesn't look that promising:

Yes, but it can be used in static, or dynamic seals. I have minor knowledge of the latter and access to experts on the matter. I suspect this will be a static application, in which case I can do little to help.

[Asanka]

Thank for all for sugesions.. this is to make disposable gloves to make biodegradable

there is a enzyme name as ROX A .. can it be usable practically, because it must be biodegrade only after disposing to soil

[Enthalpy]

Some biodegradable polymers are polylactic acid (commonly available for 3D printers) and polycaprolactone:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polylactic_acid

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polycaprolactone

 

Polylactic acid makes items not resistent to heat, chemicals... nor to biodegradation, but you seem to like that. Would it be any suitable for gloves? Not as a protection against chemicals - this looks like a generic restriction for biodegradable gloves.

 

In any case, you should consider to copolymerize the biodegradable part with NBR, instead of mixing it after polymerization.