Post on 06-Aug-2015
CHEMISTRY OF RUBBER
By: Heath Bridges
POLYMERS
Rubber’s elastic property comes from its chemical makeup. Rubber is a polymer, a chain of repeating units called monomers (Freudenrich 1).
MONOMERS
The monomer in rubber is called isoprene and has two carbon-carbon double bonds (1).
EFFECTS OF DRYING The fluid which comes from latex trees contains large numbers
of isoprene molecules and as the latex dries, the isoprene molecules crowd together (1). The isoprene molecules then attack carbon-carbon double bonds of neighboring molecules causing the double bonds to break (1). The electrons then rearrange to form a bond between the two isoprene molecules (1).
POLYISOPRENE MOLECULES
The process continues until long strands of many isoprene molecules are linked like a chain (Freudenrich 1). These strands are called polyisoprene polymer with each polyisoprene molecule containing thousands of isoprene monomers (1).
CONTINUED EFFECTS OF DRYING
As the drying process continues electrostatic bonds form between the polyisoprene strands (1). The electrostatic attraction between strands holds the rubber fibers together and gives them their “stretchy” property (1).
TEMPERATURE ON RUBBER
Temperature affects the electrostatic interactions between the polyisoprene strands in latex rubber (1). Hot temperatures reduce the interactions and cause the rubber to have a stickier texture (1). Colder temperatures increase the interactions and cause the rubber to become brittle (1).
WORKS CITED
Freudenrich, Ph.D., Craig. "How Rubber Works" 14 October 2008.HowStuffWorks.com. <http://science.howstuffworks.com/rubber.htm> 11April 2013.http://www.howstuffworks.com/rubber.htm
Schaefer, Ronald J. "Dynamic properties of rubber." Rubber World May 1994: 20+.
General OneFile. Web. 11 Apr. 2013.DocumentURL<http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA15410472&v=2.1&u=tel_k_dlhs&it=r&p=GPS&s
w=w>http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-15410472.html The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia
University Press. All rights reserved.Read more: rubber: Chemistry andProperties | Infoplease.com <http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/science/rubber-chemistry-properties.html#ixzz2QFfYlrn8>