Study on the Properties of Natural Rubber/ trans ‐1,4‐Polyisoprene Blend Fibers Prepared by Solution Blow Spinning

ABSTRACT

Natural rubber (NR) fibers exhibit cold flow at room temperature with insufficient shape retention, which limits their range of applications. In this study, synthetic trans ‐1,4‐polyisoprene (TPI) was blended with NR via solution blow spinning to prepare blend fiber membranes with different NR/TPI ratios. The effects of TPI incorporation on fiber morphology, thermal properties, surface wettability, specific surface area, and mechanical properties were systematically investigated. The results show that with increasing TPI content, the diameter of the blend fibers decreases from 7.5 to 5.6 μm, while the specific surface area and porosity increase significantly. The water contact angle increases from 98° to 126°, indicating enhanced hydrophobicity. The addition of TPI slightly raises the glass transition temperature and effectively alleviates the cold flow issue of NR. Regarding mechanical properties, the tensile strength increases with increasing TPI content (up to 6.104 MPa), whereas the elongation at break shows a decreasing trend. The tensile product reaches its optimum at an NR:TPI ratio of 1:1 (895.14). This study provides a new technical approach and theoretical basis for the preparation of high‐performance elastomer fibers.