I was wondering what is so special in natural rubber or SBR that the tires made lasts for so many kilometers. the double bond of isoprene or butadiene after curing with sulfur creates such wonderful material.
In fact, butadiene based rubbers have very different properties than isoprene based rubbers( natural rubber) . Reason why aircraft types are made of 100 % NR whereas automobile tires are made of 70 % SBR , 30 %NR
Everything is due the exquisite chemistry of polydienes
Elasticity, hystersis, cold flow, ability to store heat and resistance to abrasion are the key physical properties that make them so useful and such a critical materials for human mobility. Imagine an IC engine or an electic motor in a vehicle without a material to make the tyres
If you desire to dive deeper into the fascinating world of rubbers, I recommend a book that you can freely download from the web , The Physics of Rubber Elasticity, by L R G Treloar, Oxford University Press, 1975. We grew up reading this book as a part of our course curriculum. It is a classic
Most of the material is from Prof. Sivaram’s comments