Abstract
X-RAY STRUCTURE OF SYNTHETIC RUBBER In presenting a series of x-ray diagrams of various types of synthetic rubber in comparison with natural rubber, in both the stretched and the unstretched condition, it is our purpose to bring out the fact that the molecular structure of synthetic rubbers is entirely different from that of natural rubber. It is proposed also to review briefly the theories which have been advanced, based on the x-ray analysis of rubber, to account for the elasticity of natural rubber, and to advance the possible reason for the difference shown by the x-ray diagrams of synthetic rubber. At the present time, from the most general point of view, the molecular structure of a rubberlike material is envisaged as a sort of brush-heap structure of entangled long chain molecules. x-Ray diffraction patterns show that, for some rubberlike materials, notable regularities of structure sometimes occur in the tangle of long-chain molecules. It is now realized that these regularities are not essential for rubberlike behavior. Nevertheless their observation and study is important because they afford a unique opportunity for studying the molecular structure of the chains and the molecular rearrangements which occur with the application of stress.