ABSTRACT
Synthetic rubber has a long and illustrious history. However, it wasn't until World War 11 that synthetic rubbers became the ''workhorses'' of the industry that they are today. With the shortage of natural rubber it became a necessity for the rubber industry to develop a substitute. With a combined effort that reached across company boundaries, emulsion-polymerized styrene-butadiene rubber in today's form was created. This copolymer, which was to be known as emulsion SBR. became the basic polymer for the tire industry as well as many other segments of the rubber industry.
