The Fundamental Differences Between Rubber and Plastics

  The core distinction between rubber and plastics lies in their deformation behavior: plastics undergo plastic deformation, whereas rubber exhibits elastic deformation. This means plastics tend not to return to their original shape after deformation, while rubber recovers more readily. Plastics generally have low elasticity, often below 100%, whereas rubber can achieve elastic extensions of 1000% or more. Most plastics are finalized after molding, while rubber typically requires vulcanization to complete the process. Rubber encompasses a class of highly elastic polymer compounds, including natural rubber derived from plants and synthetic rubber produced from monomers such as butadiene, isoprene, and chloroprene obtained from natural gas or petroleum. Among synthetic rubbers, styrene-butadiene rubber is the most widely used. Conductive rubber, for instance, is manufactured by incorporating silver-plated fillers through molding and vulcanization to achieve conductivity and electromagnetic shielding properties.