Synthetic Rubber

Since the World War II, synthetic rubber has played an ever-larger role in the polymer realm. With supplies of natural rubber cut off in Southeast Asia, the United States embarked upon an ambitious program to synthesize and characterize synthetic rubber samples to replace the natural rubber it could no longer obtain. Today synthetic rubber has supplanted natural rubber, and found myriad uses in everything from tennis shoes to automobile tires. As synthetic rubber products proliferate, it becomes even more important to be able to characterize them absolutely in order to predict their behavior.