Rubber is a natural polymer and possesses elastic properties. It is also termed as elastomer and has a variety of uses. It is manufactured from rubber latex which is a colloidal dispersion of rubber in water. This latex is obtained from the bark of rubber tree.
Natural rubber may be considered as a linear polymer of isoprene (2 – methyl-1, 3 – butadiene) and is also called as cis – 1, 4 - polyisoprene. The cis – polyisoprene molecule consists of various chains held together by weak Vander Waals interactions and has a coiled structure. Thus it can be stretched like a spring and exhibits elastic properties.
Synthetic rubber is any vulcanisable rubber like polymer which is capable of getting stretched to twice its length. Thus, synthetic rubbers are either homopolymers of 1, 3 – butadiene derivatives or copolymers of 1, 3 – butadiene or its derivatives with another unsaturated monomer.
Vulcanisation of rubber: natural rubber becomes soft at high temperature (>335 K) and brittle at low temperature (<283 K) and shows high water absorption capacity. It is soluble in non – polar solvents and is non – resistant to attack by oxidising agents. To improve upon these physical properties, a process of vulcanisation is carried out. This process consists of heating a mixture of raw rubber with sulphur and an appropriate additive at a temperature range between 373 K to 415 K. On vulcanisation, sulphur forms cross links at the reactive sites of double bonds and thus the rubber gets stiffened. In manufacture of tyre rubber, 5% of sulphur is used as a cross linking agent.
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