The fundamental difference between plastic and rubber is that plastic undergoes plastic deformation when it deforms, while rubber undergoes elastic deformation. In other words, plastic is not easily restored to its original state after deformation, while rubber is relatively much easier.

The difference between plastic and rubber

Simply put:

The fundamental difference between plastic and rubber is that plastic undergoes plastic deformation when it deforms, while rubber undergoes elastic deformation. In other words, plastic is not easily restored to its original state after deformation, while rubber is relatively much easier. The elasticity of plastic is very small, usually less than 100%, while rubber can reach 1000% or even more. The vast majority of plastic molding processes are completed, and the product process is also completed; After the rubber molding process is completed, a vulcanization process is also required.

Plastic and rubber are both polymer materials, mainly composed of carbon and hydrogen atoms, with some containing small amounts of oxygen, nitrogen, chlorine, silicon, fluorine, sulfur and other atoms. Their properties are special and their uses are also unique. At room temperature, plastic is solid, very hard, and cannot be stretched or deformed. And rubber has low hardness, elasticity, can stretch and elongate, and can return to its original state after stopping stretching. This is due to their different molecular structures. Another difference is that plastic can be recycled and reused multiple times, while rubber cannot be directly recycled and can only be processed into recycled rubber before it can be used. The shape of plastic at temperatures between 100 and 200 degrees is similar to that of rubber at temperatures between 60 and 100 degrees. Plastic does not include rubber.

Complex statement:

Broadly speaking, rubber is actually a type of plastic, which includes rubber. Now provide a detailed introduction

1、 Formation of raw rubber:

Raw rubber can be divided into two categories: natural rubber and synthetic rubber:

1. Natural rubber: A raw rubber material formed by cutting rubber tree trunks, collecting the released rubber slurry, and undergoing processing procedures such as impurity removal, solidification, smoking, and drying.

2. Synthetic rubber: A byproduct generated by the petrochemical industry, which synthesizes raw rubber materials with different physical properties according to different needs. Common examples include SBR, NBR, EPDM, BR, IIR, CR, Q, FKM, etc. However, due to differences in synthesis methods, similar rubber materials can be divided into several different types of raw rubber, and through formula settings, any type of rubber material can be transformed into thousands of raw rubber materials that meet product requirements.

Natural rubber comes from rubber trees in tropical and subtropical regions. Due to its important role in industry, agriculture, and national defense, rubber is an important strategic material, which has prompted countries lacking rubber resources to take the lead in researching and developing synthetic rubber.

2、 Chemical composition of rubber

By analyzing the chemical composition of natural rubber, it was found that its basic component is isoprene. So it inspired people to use isoprene as a monomer for polymerization reactions, resulting in synthetic rubber called isoprene rubber. The structure and properties of isoprene rubber are basically the same as natural rubber. Due to the fact that isoprene could only be obtained from turpentine at that time, the source of raw materials was limited, while butadiene had abundant sources. Therefore, a series of synthetic rubbers were developed based on butadiene. Such as butadiene rubber, styrene butadiene rubber, nitrile rubber, chloroprene rubber, etc.

With the development of the petrochemical industry, various gases such as ethylene, propylene, butene, isobutene, butane, pentene, and isopentene can be obtained from oilfield gas and refinery gas through high-temperature cracking and separation purification. They are good raw materials for manufacturing synthetic rubber.

Natural rubber accounts for only about 15% of the world's rubber production, while the rest is synthetic rubber. There are many varieties of synthetic rubber with different properties, which can replace or even surpass natural rubber in many situations. Synthetic rubber can be divided into general rubber and special rubber. The amount of general rubber used is relatively large, for example, styrene butadiene rubber accounts for 60% of synthetic rubber production; Next is butadiene rubber, accounting for 15%; In addition, there are universal rubbers such as isoprene rubber, chloroprene rubber, sodium butadiene rubber, ethylene propylene rubber, butyl rubber, etc.