A New Process for Isolation and Stabilization of Guayule Rubber from Latex

Guayule rubber has been considered for tire applications since the early 20^th century.  Two key issues to be addressed before guayule can be considered a raw material for a modern tire are 1) removal of low molecular weight materials from the rubber and 2) adequate stabilization of the polymer after removal of the low molecular weight material.     Coagulation of guayule latex provides rubber that must be extracted with a polar solvent to remove  low molecular weight components of the rubber, but during the extraction most antioxidants added to the latex prior to coagulation are removed.   This paper describes an improved extraction process which is superior to the standard batch extraction and also describes a method of stabilizing the rubber so that the polymer is suitable for tire applications.