Rubber Chemistry and Materials: Design, Processing, and Advanced Applications

Dear Colleagues,

Elastomeric rubber has become an indispensable material, permeating nearly every aspect of modern industry and daily life, ranging from automotive tires, industrial seals, and medical devices to aerospace components and renewable energy equipment. With the rapid development of emerging industries such as new energy vehicles, high-end equipment manufacturing, and green energy, coupled with increasingly stringent global environmental regulations and growing demands for sustainability, the rubber industry is facing unprecedented opportunities and challenges. Many traditional rubber materials are gradually being unable to meet the increasingly rigorous requirements of extreme service conditions, environmental friendliness, and high performance, which is driving continuous innovation in rubber chemistry, material design, processing technology, and application development. To systematically showcase the latest research achievements, clarify frontier research directions, and promote academic exchanges and industrial transformation in the field of rubber chemistry and materials, we organize this Special Issue of Polymers focusing on “Rubber Chemistry and Materials: Design, Processing, and Advanced Applications”.

This Special Issue aims to gather high-quality original research papers, review articles, and short communications from researchers and engineers worldwide, covering the entire industrial chain of rubber materials—from molecular design and synthesis to processing engineering and from performance optimization to advanced applications. The core topics of this Special Issue are carefully designed to cover the most cutting-edge and critical research directions in the field, which are detailed as follows:

1. Design, synthesis, and chemical modification of rubber materials—This topic focuses on the molecular-level design and precision synthesis of rubber materials, including but not limited to synthetic rubbers (e.g., polybutadiene, styrene-butadiene rubber, nitrile-butadiene rubber, and ethylene propylene diene monomer) and natural rubber derivatives. Research on chemical modification strategies, such as post-polymerization modification, crosslinking regulation, etc., is particularly emphasized, aiming to tailor the molecular structure of rubber to achieve tunable thermal, mechanical, and chemical properties.
2. Reinforcing materials and additives for rubbers—This topic covers the research on various reinforcing fillers (e.g., carbon black, silica, silicates, carbon nanotubes, graphene, and composite fillers), including their surface modification, dispersion mechanism, and synergistic reinforcement effects with rubber matrices. Additionally, studies on functional additives such as vulcanizing agents, accelerators, anti-aging agents, and processing aids are included, with a focus on developing environment-friendly, high-efficiency additives (e.g., biobased inverse vulcanized compounds) that can enhance rubber performance, improve processing efficiency, and extend service life while reducing environmental impact. The synergistic application of multiple fillers (e.g., carbon black-silica composite fillers) to achieve balanced performance optimization is also a key research direction in this section.
3. Rubber rheology, new processing technology, and equipment—This topic includes the characterization of the rheological properties of rubber (e.g., viscoelasticity, curing behavior) using advanced instruments such as rubber process analyzers (RPA), as well as the exploration of new processing technologies (e.g., continuous mixing, 3D printing, intelligent processing) and advanced equipment that can improve processing efficiency, reduce energy consumption, and ensure product uniformity. Research on process-structure-property relationships, which provides theoretical guidance for the optimization of processing parameters and the development of new processing technologies, is also highlighted in this section.
4. Advanced applications and performance evaluation of rubber materials—Research on performance evaluation methods and standards of rubber materials, including mechanical properties, thermal stability, aging resistance, corrosion resistance, and recyclability, is included to establish a scientific evaluation system for advanced rubber materials and promote their industrial application. The development of intelligent rubber materials (e.g., self-healing, shape-memory rubber) and their application in flexible electronics, wearable devices, and other emerging fields are also covered in this section.

Rubber chemistry and materials is a cross-disciplinary field integrating polymer chemistry, material science, chemical engineering, and applied physics. This Special Issue is committed to providing a high-level academic platform for researchers and practitioners in the field to share their latest research results, exchange academic ideas, and promote the integration of basic research and industrial application. We sincerely thank all the authors for their valuable contributions, the reviewers for their rigorous and professional review work, and the editorial team of Polymers for their strong support in organizing this Special Issue.

We believe that this Special Issue will not only summarize the current research progress in the field of rubber chemistry and materials but also point out new research directions and development trends, providing important references for the sustainable development of the global rubber industry and the innovation of related fields.

Dr. Feng Wang
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Polymers is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• synthetic rubber
• rubber additives
• rubber processing
• rubber applications