3. Results
Resistivity studies are important for insulating materials, since the most desirable characteristic of an insulator is its ability to resist the leakage of electric current.
Fig. 1 shows the variation of volume resistivity (ρv) of neat polymers and the binary blends as a function of chitosan concentration.
Natural rubber is good insulator with volume resistivity in the order of 109 Ω cm, while the volume resistivity of chitosan is in the order of 102 Ω cm.
As the concentration of chitosan increases the ρv value decreases.
This decrease in ρv is due to the introduction of low resistivity chitosan. The curve shows a sharp change after 50% CS.
The effect of dynamic vulcanization on ρv values of NR/CS blends is given in Table 1.
The effect of vulcanization and incorporation of MA on the resistivity of the blends were studied for NR85CS15 and NR65CS35 blends.
For these blends the resistivity increased by dynamic vulcanization using DCP.
The NR85CS15 blend vulcanized with DCP shows highest resistivity value.
The effect of incorporation of DCP and MA on the resistivity values of the NR85CS15 blend sample is shown in Fig. 5.