The bulk of rubber in NR latex exists in the form of particles dispersed in the latex as emulsion. These naturally occurring particles are made up of rubber core surrounded by a monolayer of non-rubber materials such as protein and lipids. In this study, the electron microscopy technique was used to differentiate between the natural rubber particles and the artificially formed rubber particles prepared from dried latex material. The artificial rubber particles appeared to be morphologically similar to the particles of natural rubber. The sizes of the artificial rubber particles in the latex, however, were abundant in the range of about 1000 nm and below whereas the sizes of the abundant NR latex particles were about 300 nm and below. More importantly, the artificial rubber particles were not surrounded by rubber particle membrane proteins normally associated with natural rubber particles.
Â