Polymer ChemistryPolymers 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.
