The purpose of this research is to modify natural rubber (NR). The optimum conditions for synthesis of epoxidized natural rubber (ENR) was investigated. The synthesized ENR was modified by hydrogenation reaction. This modified ENR was called HENR. The optimum amount of CuSO4 ·5H2O used in this reaction was investigated. It was found that the optimum condition for synthesizing ENR is as followed. The type of surfactant is POE(12)tridecyl ether and the amount of this surfactant is 5 phr. The highest epoxide content which received from fresh NR latex and concentrated NR latex in selected condition are 25.53 and 22.51% respectively. The highest percentage of hydrogenation from this condition is 67.90%. It can be concluded that after hydrogenation reaction HENR shows higher thermal resistance than that of synthesized ENR.

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The mixed matrix membranes were prepared from crosslinked PVA embedded with zeolite 4A that was grafted with PHEMA. The PHEMA was grafted onto the zeolite surface by first, attaching the vinyl-silane onto the zeolite surface and subsequently polymerizing HEMA monomer via the free-radical polymerization. The FT-IR spectroscopy confirmed the successful grafting of PHEMA on the zeolite. The grafting percentage determined by thermalgravimetry analysis (TG) was found to increase with the amount of HEMA monomer. The membrane swelling in water and pure acetone revealed the decreasing trend with increased the zeolite loading. Examined by DSC, the amount of non-freezing bound water decreased with increasing the zeolite in the membranes.

Alumina nano-particles was grafted with poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (PHEMA) utilizing the sequential method; that is, the alumina surface was first rendered with initiator, benzophenone, by UV-irradiation followed by the grafting polymerization of HEMA on the surface which was initiated thermally and propagated via the free-radical polymerization. FT-IR spectroscopy confirmed the successful grafting of PHEMA onto the alumina surface. Determined by thermalgravimetry (TG), the amount of benzophenone on the alumina surface was found to increase with the UV-irradiation time; however upon grafting of PHEMA, the amount of grafted-PHEMA was the same irrespective of the reaction time. The glass transition temperature (Tg) of grafted-PHEMA on alumina particles was approximately 93 °C that is higher than that of PHEMA which has Tg around 85 °C. This indicates the more restricted movement of grafted-PHEMA compared with the ungrafted-PHEMA.