Natural rubber is an amorphous body with the ability to crystallize. Natural material (raw) - colorless or white carbon. Natural rubber is insoluble in alcohol, water, acetone and some other liquids. In aromatic and fatty hydrocarbons (ethers, benzene, gasoline, and others), it swells and subsequently dissolves. As a result, colloidal solutions are formed, which are widely used in technical needs.
Natural rubber has a uniform molecular structure. The material has high physical and technological characteristics, is easily processed on the appropriate equipment.
Natural rubber has a high elasticity (elasticity). The material is able to restore its original shape when the forces that caused its deformation cease to act on it. It should be said that elasticity is maintained in a fairly wide temperature range. However, prolonged storage causes the material to harden.
Natural rubber at a temperature of minus one hundred and ninety-five degrees is transparent and hard, at a temperature of zero to ten degrees- opaque and fragile, at twenty - translucent, elastic and soft. When heated above 50˚C, the material becomes plastic and sticky.
It loses its elasticity at a temperature of more than eighty degrees, at one hundred and twenty degrees it passes into a resinous liquid state, after hardening it is impossible to obtain the original product. When the temperature rises to two hundred to two hundred and fifty degrees, natural rubber begins to decompose. As a result, a number of liquid and gaseous substances are formed.
Natural rubber is a good dielectric. In addition, the material has low gas and water resistance.
The material is rather slowly oxidized by atmospheric oxygen. The process is faster under the influence of chemical oxidizing agents.
In addition to all other properties, rubber has plasticity. He is able to maintain the form that he acquired under the influence of external influences. Plasticity, which manifests itself during machining and heating, is considered one of the distinguishing characteristics of the material. Due to the fact that rubber has elastic and plastic properties, it is also called a plastoelastic material.
Natural rubber, whose formula is (C5H8)n, includes molecules containing a large number of double bonds. The material quite easily enters into chemical reactions with many substances. The increased reactivity is due to the unsaturated chemical nature of the material. The best thinginteraction occurs in those solutions in which rubber is represented by molecules of relatively large colloidal particles.
When stretched or cooled, the transition of the material to the crystalline state from the amorphous (crystallization) is noted. This process takes place over a period of time, not so instantly. Crystals have a small size, indefinite geometric shape, and their edges are fuzzy.
