Rubber Materials for Advanced Engineering, Technology, and Industrial Applications

Dear Colleagues,

Rubber constitutes an important class of engineering materials owing to its high stretchability, excellent dynamic mechanical performance, and remarkable dielectric properties. These attributes make rubber-based materials highly suitable for a wide range of advanced engineering, technological, and industrial applications. Beyond their conventional uses, rubber composites have recently emerged as key components in smart technologies, including sensors and actuators, energy-harvesting systems, healthcare devices, and soft robotics.

At the same time, the rapid growth of the automotive industry has resulted in the generation of large quantities of waste rubber, posing significant environmental challenges. Given that waste rubber contains valuable functional constituents, it represents a promising low-cost resource for reuse in civil engineering and other industrial applications. However, the successful integration of rubber materials into advanced and high-performance applications requires precise engineering of both the rubber matrix and filler systems to achieve well-defined microstructures. A fundamental understanding of the underlying structure–property relationships is therefore essential.

In this context, we invite contributions to this Special Issue in the form of original research articles (both theoretical and experimental), review papers, and communications that address the design, characterization, and advanced applications of rubber and rubber-based composite materials.

Dr. Md Najib Alam
Prof. Dr. Sang-Shin Park
Guest Editors

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-blind 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.