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Polymer Chemistry

Polymers in and Around You

Where does rubber come from?

Rubber trees! No kidding. Natural rubber is collected from rubber trees like maple syrup comes from maple trees, except the syrup is latex sap. It’s a polymer of isoprene where each carbon-carbon double bond along the chain has cis-stereochemistry. Although there are man-made alternatives produced artificially, even today about half of the rubber produced each year on our planet does come from rubber trees.

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