Liquid rubber has a wide range of applications and good industry development prospects

Liquid rubber is a viscous fluid liquid at room temperature, with a relative molecular mass between 2,000-10,000. The physical and mechanical properties of liquid rubber are similar to ordinary vulcanized rubber. Compared with solid rubber, it has the characteristics of small molecular weight, easy processing, and the ability to produce cross-linking. According to different main chains, liquid rubber can be divided into liquid fluorine rubber, olefin liquid rubber, diene liquid rubber, polyurethane liquid rubber and liquid silicone rubber.

According to the “2022-2027 Liquid Rubber Industry In-depth Market Research and Investment Strategy Suggestions Report released by the Industrial Research Center, liquid There are many methods for rubber production, mainly including rubber degradation method and monomer polymerization method. Monomer polymerization is the mainstream preparation method for liquid rubber and can be divided into four categories: negative ion polymerization, free radical emulsion polymerization, free radical solution polymerization and cationic polymerization. The free radical emulsion polymerization method is mainly used to prepare liquid nitrile rubber. Butadiene and acrylonitrile are used as raw materials, rosin soap is used as an emulsifier, and tert-dodecyl mercaptan is used as a regulator to finally produce liquid rubber. The free radical emulsion polymerization method has the advantages of convenient operation and simple equipment.

Liquid rubber has a wide range of applications, including coatings, sealing materials, waterproof materials, plasticizers, rocket solid propellants, adhesives, additive modifiers, etc. In recent years, the output of my country’s construction waterproofing materials has continued to grow. According to statistics from the China Building Waterproofing Association, the output of my country’s construction waterproofing materials will reach 4.09 billion square meters in 2021, a year-on-year increase of 8.4%. Benefiting from the growing demand for downstream applications, the development space of my country’s liquid rubber industry continues to expand.

In terms of market segments, liquid nitrile rubber, liquid styrene-butadiene rubber, and liquid polybutadiene rubber have a wide range of uses and occupy a dominant position in the liquid rubber market. Liquid polybutadiene rubber has excellent properties, including water resistance, low temperature resistance, dielectric properties, etc. It can produce a cross-linking and curing reaction with epoxy resin, magnesium oxide, etc., and can be made into an adhesive for rocket solid propellant. In recent years, thanks to the sufficient supply of raw materials, my country’s liquid polybutadiene rubber production has continued to grow, driving the liquid rubber market penetration to continue to increase.

There are many liquid rubber manufacturers in my country, but most of them are small and medium-sized enterprises, and the industry concentration is low. Zhejiang Xin’an Chemical Group, Shanghai Shuorong Tianxia Biotechnology Co., Ltd., and Shanghai Silicon Mountain Polymer Materials Co., Ltd. are the main manufacturers of liquid rubber in my country.

In the global market, my country, the United States, Japan, Germany and other countries have large-scale production capabilities, and liquid rubber production is growing rapidly. Industry analysts said that liquid rubber has superior performance and is widely used in many fields. my country is transforming from a large manufacturing country to a powerful manufacturing country. Moving forward, with the gradual release of market demand, the liquid rubber industry will gain broad development space in the future.