Development of the Direction of Replacing Natural Rubber in Elastomeric Materials

This review examines current issues related to the replacement of natural rubber in rubber products. The first section of the review compares the structure and properties of natural rubber and synthetic isoprene rubber, highlighting the differences between them. The main reasons for the high cohesive strength of natural rubber are shown. The second section examines the main methods of replacing natural rubber in rubber compounds and provides an analysis of them, showing the advantages and disadvantages of each method. Based on the analysis, it was found that the most accessible and cost-effective way to replace natural rubber is to create a synthetic material that will make rubber compounds and rubbers similar in properties to natural rubber. An analysis was conducted of methods for increasing the cohesive strength of synthetic isoprene rubber, which will allow the creation of a material with properties similar to those of natural rubber, and the most effective and affordable method was determined – using a mixture of polymers. It has been shown that combining synthetic polyisoprene with polyethylene and other polymers improves the basic properties of elastomeric materials based on synthetic isoprene rubber to the properties of elastomeric materials based on natural rubber, in particular, the cohesive strength of the rubber compound, modulus, and fatigue characteristics of rubbers.