In the study of hydrogenation and deuteration behavior of natural rubber, various catalytic reduction systems were employed and investigated fully hydrogenated natural rubber was prepared. The structure of fully hydrogenated natural rubber was known as alternating copolymer of ethylene and propylene, and could be prepared from natural rubber by catalytic hydrogenation with Wilkinson's catalyst. It is well-known that the rubber hydrocarbon has perfect cis-1,4-polyisoprene structure and the catalyst was found to be very effective. Wilkinson's catalyst in homogeneous phase exhibited effectiveness in hydrogenation better than that of palladium on calcium carbonate. Both Wilkinson's catalyst and deuterated p-toluene sulfonylhydrazide (D-PTSH) were used in deuteration p-toluene process. Application of D-PTSH resulted in more deuterated product and deuterating ratio was 86.2 %. The chain structure of the obtained polymers were confirmed by NMR and IR. The glass transition temperature of hydrogenated natural rubber was determined by DSC and found to be -51.8℃, whereas the Tg of natural rubber was -62.6℃. Commercial ethylene-propylene rubbers contains 50 % propylene usually show the glass transition temperatures around -55~60℃.
