2. Mechanical behavior

2.1 Natural elasticity

The characteristic property of rubbery materials, also known as elastomers, is their extraordinary elasticity. In 1805, Gouth demonstrated the thermo-elastic properties of natural rubber. Around 1850, Joule and Kelvin undertook a thermodynamic analysis of the elasticity of this type of material, and it wasn't until 1932 that Meyer, van Susick and Valko proposed the molecular mechanism of rubber elasticity. As described by Staudinger in 1920, a rubbery material is formed by the covalent linking of simple, identical structural units called monomers. Macromolecules are synthesized using traditional chemical principles of atomic multivalency. A macromolecule is therefore a long chain that can be made up of several thousand monomers. When a block of rubber obtained...