Elastomers such as gels and rubbers play various roles in our lives. Elastomers, which guarantee the safety of airplanes and automobiles and the stability of buildings, are materials that have made the lives of people in the twentieth century extremely convenient. The existence of macromolecules, that is, giant molecules, has been clarified; the development of synthetic macromolecules has progressed; and understanding of elastomers has progressed. By introducing new ideas, it has become possible to obtain tough and hard elastomers, which was difficult under conventional ideas. In this paper, we will explain the development from the classical theory of elastomers to current efforts.
Keywords: 101 Self-assembly / Self-organized materials; 303 Mechanical / Physical processing; Elastomer; crosslink; gel; mechanical property; polyrotaxane.
© 2021 The Author(s). Published by National Institute for Materials Science in partnership with Taylor & Francis Group.