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Thermal Degradation of Natural Rubber Male Condoms
Author(s) -
Bó Maria Cristina,
Lopes Léa,
Visconte Leila Lea Yuan,
Nunes Regina Célia Reis
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
macromolecular symposia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.257
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1521-3900
pISSN - 1022-1360
DOI - 10.1002/masy.200651394
Subject(s) - differential scanning calorimetry , condom , natural rubber , thermogravimetry , materials science , composite material , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) , chemical engineering , medicine , engineering , virology , physics , thermodynamics , syphilis
Condoms play an important role in the prevention of human immunodeficiency virus transmission. The prediction of condom shelf life became a high priority for the international and national committees responsible for the standardization of the quality of the product. In this work, two sets of batches of natural rubber condoms from three manufactures were compared to investigate the effect of the total sulphur, in their formulations, on the thermal degradation of the products. One set was manufactured in 1999–2000, and the other was manufactured in 2004–2005. The techniques used were differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetry (TGA) in different atmospheres, as well as elemental analysis in the determination of the total sulphur present in the condoms. The results show that the profile of the thermal behavior is very similar to all condoms. No clear correlation between the amount of sulphur in the formulations and the thermal behavior of the products was found. This study intended to contribute to the development of a method for predicting shelf life of natural rubber male condoms.