Protein Removal from Natural Rubber Latex with Fe3O4@Al2O3 Nanoparticle

The presence of protein in the natural rubber latex for the medical device manufacture seems to be the most considered compound due to its allergic effect. Magnetic coated alumina (Fe3O4@Al2O3) has been known as an adsorbent for organic substrates due to its performance through physical and/or chemical interaction. In the current study, we tried to figure out the potential of Fe3O4@Al2O3 to prepare low protein’s natural rubber latex with and without the presence of surfactant through a continuous batch system. The dry rubber content, surfactant amount, and time during the incubation were investigated to determine the effective protein removal natural rubber. The highly deproteinized natural rubber was confirmed using Kjeldahl method, proven that the utilization of Fe3O4@Al2O3 could reduce the protein content from 0.38 to 0.016% in an optimum condition (dry rubber content of 10.00%; surfactant of 0.25%; Fe3O4@Al2O3 of 1.00 wt.%; and 15 min of incubation time). These results showed that Fe3O4@Al2O3 is a very good material to remove protein from natural rubber latex and this method can be performed using a continuous batch system.