Abstract
Due to concerns regarding fuel consumption and environmental issues arising from the use of elastomers, particularly in the automobile industry, we investigated the strategy of fabricating elastomers based on the biogenic beta-myrcene and styrene using living anionic polymerization and successfully cross-linked these elastomers with sulfur. Furthermore, the dynamic viscoelastic and mechanical behaviors of these cured elastomers were investigated. Amazingly, the damping factor (tan delta) of the homopolymer of beta-myrcene increased to 2.8 and exhibited a good damping potential. In addition, the satisfying wet skid resistance and rolling resistance performance were obtained for the copolymer with styrene. Meanwhile, the tensile strength and elongation at break of the copolymer were approximately 1.4 MPa and 230%, respectively. Moreover, the mechanical performance of the copolymer was distinctly improved after reinforcement with carbon black or silica. In particular, the tensile strength of copolymers filled with 30 phr carbon black or silica increased by 220-378%. On the basis of preliminary results, we believe that the elastomer with biogenic myrcene is a versatile and outstanding candidate future elastomer material.