Technical Glossary Ethlene Propylene Rubber

[Ethylene Propylene Rubber]

Ethylene propylene rubber (EPDM) is a synthetic rubber, which is synthesized through the copolymerization of general use plastics ethylene and propylene. The American Society for Testing Materials (ASTM) code is EMP.

Ethylene and propylene are both plastics on their own. However, when copolymerized, the resulting material has a heterogeneous structure, which has rubber-like characteristic.

Radical cross-linking can be achieved with peroxides, however there are also types of ethylene propylene rubber which achieve cross-linking by copolymerizing with a third component which includes a double bond; these are called ethylene propylene diene monomer rubbers (EPDM or EPT). This process is called coordinated ionic polymerization.