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We wanted to find a sustainable alternative source for natural latex. Because of climate change it is getting harder to grow the rubber tree. Dandelions, contain the same raw material that is used in rubber production.
Latex was extracted from dandelions by cutting up the root and dissolving it in methylated spirits. This was left to sit for 48 hours before being filtered. The filtrate was distilled using a Liebig Condenser to separate the latex from the methylated spirits. We were then left with our latex.
Next we made the glue. We combined the latex with epoxy resin and calcium carbonate in a ratio of 50% latex, 30% calcium carbonate and 20% epoxy resin. This was left to dry for 48 hours at room temperature. We then tested this by putting the glue on 2 pieces of wood, screwing a hook into one end and place the other end in a vice. We then attached a digital pull scale to the hook and hooked all of this to a crane. The crane was raised and the process was videoed to pinpoint the exact moment the glue failed. We collected this data and used the tensile strength formula which is s = F/A, where s is the tensile strength and F is the force required to break the glue, and A is the cross-sectional area. The glue had a tensile strength of 193 psi.
This has shown that it is possible to make glue out of the latex found in dandelions.
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