Characterization

of Latex-Volatile
Fatty Acid
Experiment No: 08

PSC 307.1.0 Polymer

Practical level 1A

G.A.N.K.Gunawardhana
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Date: 11/07/2023

Experiment No: 08

Experiment Name: Characterization of Latex-Volatile Fatty Acid

Objectives:
• To determine volatile fatty acid number of given NR latex.
• To understand the importance of VFA.

Introduction:

In NR latex it self there are no volatile fatty acid, or there are no significant amount of
volatile fatty acid. But latex is a good nutrient medium for bacterial growth thus, after sap the
latex from various microbes’ fragmentation with the carbohydrates mainly glucose in latex they
form volatile fatty acids. The main volatile fatty acid in latex is acetic acid. And also there are
small amounts of formic acid, propionic acid are also formed. VFA number is define as the
number of grams of KOH per weight of 100g of latex solid.

VFA number is an important to measure of the quality of latex by determining level of

deterioration and stability of the latex. The high VFA no means high detoriation therefore the
quality of the latex is law. VFA number determine by coagulating the latex with ammonia
sulphate and acidifying the resulting serum by steam distillation. Depending on the system of
concentrated latex there are two types of preservations ; Low Ammonia (LA) : Alkalinity as
Ammonia % : 0.3 % Maximum , High ammonia (HA) : Alkalinity as Ammonia % : 0.6 Minimum.
Centrifuged latex produced from well preserved field latex will have low VFA number.

Good quality centrifuged latex should have VFA number less than 0.05 and it should not
exceed 0.1 even though the standard is 0.2. generaly, mechanical stability time (MST), volatile
fatty acid number (VFA No.) increased with increasing storage times.

A very common method used to determine early decay in preserved latex is by

neutralizing the ammonia in latex with boric acid or sulfuric acid and judging the extent of
decomposition from the intensity of putrefactive odors. Another method is to determine the
total concentration of acidic substances by KOH titration.

In this experiment, VFA number is determined after coagulating the latex with ammonium
sulphate and acidifying the resulting serum by steam distillation. To calculate the VFA number
the following equation can be used.

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 [134.64×𝑐×𝑣] 50 + [𝑚×(100−𝐷𝑅𝐶)]
𝑉𝐹𝐴 𝑛𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 = { } ×{ }
(𝑚×𝑇𝑆𝐶) 100×𝑑

Where,
c = Concentration of barium hydroxide solution (moldm-3)
v = Volume of barium hydroxide required to neutralize the distillate (cm3)
m = Mass of the test portion (g)
TSC = Total solid content of latex
DRC = Dry rubber content in the latex
d = density of the serum (Mgm-3)

Materials:
• Latex sample
• 0.005 moldm-3
• barium hydroxide solution
• Phenolphthalein
• 50 cm3 of 30% (m/m) ammonium sulfate solution

Apparatus:
• Beakers
• Water bath
• Funnel
• Filter paper
• Thermometer
• Pipette
• 100 cm3 graduated cylinder
• Burette
• Conical flasks
• Distillation apparatus
• Glass rod
• Laboratory stand
• Mortar and pestle

Methodology:

About 50 g of latex concentrate was weighed into a beaker to the nearest 0.1 g. While the
latex concentrate was being stirred, 50 cm3 of 30% (m/m) ammonium sulfate solution was
accurately added from a pipette. The beaker was placed in a water-bath, maintained at 70 °C,

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or the latex concentrate was continued to be stirred until it coagulated. The beaker was covered
with a watch-glass and left on or in the bath for a period of 15 min.
The serum which exuded was decanted through a filter paper. The coagulum was
transferred to a mortar and more serum was pressed out by kneading it with a pestle. This serum
was filtered through the same filter paper. About 25 cm3 of the filtered serum was pipetted into
a dry 50 cm3 conical flask and acidified by accurately adding 5 cm3 of 50% (m/m) sulfuric acid
solution. The flask was well mixed by swirling. If a precipitate was formed during the acidification
step, it was removed by filtration through a fresh dry filter paper.

The apparatus was subjected to steam for at least 15 min. With steam passing through
the outer jacket of the apparatus (steam outlet open), 10 cm3 of acidified serum was introduced
into the inner tube by a pipette. A 100 cm3 graduated cylinder was placed under the tip of the
condenser to receive the distillate.

The steam outlet was partially closed to divert steam into the inner tube. Steam was
passed gently at first, then the steam outlet was fully closed, and distillation was continued at a
rate of 3 cm3/min to 5 cm3/min until 100 cm3 of distillate had been collected. The distillate was
titrated with 0.005 moldm-3 barium hydroxide solution using phenolphthalein as the indicator.

Figure 1 – The coagulation process by using Figure 02: distillation apparatus for distillation of volatile acids
water bath

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Results:

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 [134.64×𝑐×𝑣] 50 + [𝑚×(100−𝐷𝑅𝐶)]
VFA number = { } ×{ }
(𝑚×𝑇𝑆𝐶) 100×𝑑

c=0.05moldm-3
v=9.10 mL
m=50.4783g
TSC= 58.673%
DRC=60.484%
d= 1×10 -6 g/cm3

[134.64×0.005 𝑚𝑜𝑙𝑑𝑚−3× 9.10 𝑐𝑚3] 50 + [50.4783𝑔×(100−60.484%)]

VFA number = { } ×{ }
(50.4783𝑔 ×58.673%) 100×1 𝑀𝑔𝑚−3

= 0.147

Discussion:

VFA is the determination of the amount of volatile fatty acid originated in hydrolysis of
the nun rubbers in the latex serum. Generally, in the natural rubber latex, there are no volatile
fatty acids or there is no significant amount of these fatty acids. Latex is a good nutrient medium
to bacterial growth as there are carbohydrates, protein , and lipids in the latex medium. And
also natural rubber latex is ideal medium for the growth of bacteria due to pH close to 7.
Therefore different kind of microbes act on these surfaces mainly carbohydrates glucose,
according to different fragmentation pathways, and make both volatile and non-volatile fatty
acids. Volatile fatty acids are leanier, short aliphatic chains. Some of the volatile fatty acids are
formic acid, acetic acid, and propanoic acid. There are different fragmentation pathways and
different microorganism species which make VFA in the latex.

In this experiment VFA number calculated by steam distillation of the acidified serum
produced by coagulating the latex with ammonium sulfate. As the first step, we have to add
ammonium sulfate to coagulate the latex. Normally latex consists of non rubber particles such
as protein, minerals etc. Ammonium sulfate helps in the precipitation of proteins and other non-
rubber components, resulting in the formation of a coagulated mass. ammonium sulphate is
added instead of acetic acid or any other acid because the volatile fatty acid content of latex,
which includes acids such as acetic acid, formic and propionic acids is measured in this
experiment. if acetic acid is used for the coagulation process it interferes with the measurement
of fatty acid contained in the original sample. Also, ammonium sulfate is produced by the
reaction between the sulphuric acid and the ammonium hydroxide. Sulphuric acid is a strong
acid and ammonium hydroxide is a weak base therefore, the salt formed by ammonium sulphate
is acidic. The use of ammonium sulfate coagulates latex in mild conditions and if HCl or any other
strong acid is used it can degrade the latex.

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 The coagulation process has to be done at a high temperature (70 ֯C) to increase the
coagulation rate. The steam bath is used to give that temperature.

Before the titration CO2 has to be removed from distillate. If not it can react with Ba(OH)2
which is used for titration. So that inaccurate results can be obtained. The elimination of carbon
dioxide also aids in preserving a constant pH throughout the titration procedure. It might be
challenging to precisely calculate the titration's endpoint because the pH of a solution that
contains dissolved carbon dioxide can fluctuate. In the titration, Ba(OH)2 reacts with volatile
fatty acids of serum. The indicator is used to determine the end point.

Normally good export quality latex VFA number should not exceed 0.1 even though the
standard is 0. 2. According to the result the sample is not good quality sample. But there are
some errors could be occurred during the titration process such as carbon dioxide can be
included during the titration, human errors can be occurred, errors can be occurred during the
stream distillation process etc.

Conclusion:

VFA of given latex sample is 0.147

According to the result latex sample is not good sample for manufacturing process.

References:

1) Latex Preservation in Latex Processing

( https://learnbin.net/latex-preservation-in-latex-processing/ )

2) Blackley, D.C., 1966. Polymer Lattices Science and Technology. Vol. 3. Maclaren & Sons
London.

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