Polybutadiene Rubber

Polybutadiene rubbers are highly elastic and have a very high degree of resistance to dynamic stress, and retain these properties even at extremely low temperatures. Blending natural rubber or styrene butadiene rubber with Buna CB improves the abrasion resistance, crack resistance and heat build-up under dynamic load.
Butadiene rubbers are produced by the solution polymerization process with the aid of organometallic catalysts. The catalyst system, which is characterized by the particular metal (neodymium, cobalt, lithium or titanium), influences the microstructure and macrostructure of the polymers and therefore the properties. LANXESS currently produces Nd, Co and Li grades.

Golf balls produced with NdBR

The Li-BR grades have a medium cis-1,4 content and a considerably higher glass transition temperature, and are entirely amorphous. These grades have a very narrow molecular weight distribution and low degree of branching.

Typical applications are tires, conveyor belts, caterpillar tread blocks, footwear soles, V-belts; they can be blended with NR for goods having thick sections and needing high resistance to reversion, e.g. buffers, roll covers needing high abrasion resistance; seals, profiles and other goods, particularly those produced by injection molding. Provided that the compounds are formulated and processed correctly, the vulcanizates have good resistance to aging, reversion, abrasion and flex cracking, good low temperature flexibility and high resilience.