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Green biodegradable thermoplastic natural rubber (GB‐TPNR) based on simple blend of natural rubber (NR) and poly(butylene succinate) (PBS) was prepared using three NR alternatives: unmodified NR and epoxidized NR with 25‐ or 50‐mol% epoxide (ie, ENR‐25 or ENR‐50). It was found that ENR‐50/PBS blend showed the best compatibility, which resulted in superior mechanical and thermal properties with the highest crystallinity of the PBS phase, on comparing with the ENR‐25/PBS and NR/PBS blends. This might be attributed to stronger chemical interactions between the epoxide groups in ENR‐50 and the polar functional groups in PBS, which were confirmed by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR). Furthermore, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and polarizing optical microscopy (POM) micrographs of ENR‐50/PBS blend revealed phase separation with finer‐grained cocontinuous structure than in ENR‐25/PBS and NR/PBS simple blends. Furthermore, the chemical interactions in ENR‐50/PBS blend enhanced the resistance to accelerated weathering.

Biodegradable thermoplastic elastomer (BTPE) blends of epoxidized natural rubber (ENR) and poly(butylene succinate) (PBS) were prepared by the melt mixing process. Influences of the processing parameters mixing temperature, rotor speed, and mixing time on mechanical and morphological properties of BTPE were investigated. Taguchi method was applied to improve the mechanical and morphological properties by optimizing the processing parameters. That is, the experimental design adopted the L9 Taguchi orthogonal array with three manipulated factors (i.e., mixing temperature, rotor speed, and mixing time). Analysis of mean and analysis of variance were also exploited and the mixing temperature was found to be the most significant processing parameter regarding mechanical properties. The mixing temperature showed large contributions to Young's modulus, 100% modulus, tensile strength, and elongation at break, namely 45. 33, 40.38, 49.31, and 36.04%, respectively. Furthermore, the optimum conditions found for mixing temperature, rotor speed, and mixing time were 140 8C, 100 rpm and 10 min, respectively. The result was confirmed by atomic force microscopy and scanning electron microscopy micrographs showing fine-grained co-continuous phase morphology of the ENR/PBS blends.

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