IIT Madras to develop alternative to rubber – The Hindu

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras are working on developing biodegradable alternative to synthetic fibre in daily use rubber products.

J.K. Fenner (India), a corporate house, is funding the project under its Corporate Social Responsibility initiative. The company signed a memorandum of agreement on Wednesday at the Institute to support research in modifying natural fibres such as cotton and hemp among others to substitute synthetic material in belts.

Institute Dean (alumni and corporate relations) Mahesh Panchagnula and President and director of J.K. Fenner (India) Nagaraju Srirama were the signatories of the MoU.

The head of the research team for the project R. Dhamodharan, professor in the Department of Chemistry at the institute, said: “The structure of the polymer to address these issues should be amenable to the standard curing procedure established in the rubber industry. The polymer as well as the “cross linker” (bridge molecule) used in curing should be designed with structural features that would make it suitable for biodegradation.”