Reaction of Natural Rubber with Hydrofluoric Acid
Abstract
Within the scope of the research on natural-rubber derivatives carried out in the Rubber-Stichting laboratories, attention was also paid to the reaction of rubber with hydrofluoric acid. Very little work in this field has been achieved by other investigators. The results of their work are mainly to be found in a number of patents. These deal with the preparation of products incompletely described that undoubtedly must be considered as more or less completely cyclized rubbers. The fluorine content of these products is, generally speaking, very low and is often said to be lost on heating or storing. According to Nielsen, it would be possible to obtain products with 30 per cent fluorine when using gaseous hydrofluoric acid. This high percentage is tentatively explained by adopting the incorrect formula H2F2 for hydrofluoric acid. Elsewhere it is stated either that HF cannot be added to rubber or that the addition product is not stable.