Unique Damping Properties of Modified Eucommia Ulmoides Gum Bearing Polar and Branched Pendants

Eucommia ulmoides gum (EUG) was a biobased hard rubber with the prospected broad applications in rubber products, whereas possessed poor elasticity and weak damping functionality at room temperature. After modification of EUG by triazolinedione-based Alder-ene reaction, the modified EUG containing varied amount of polar and branched pendants could become a new type of soft rubber and functional material with excellent damping properties, and especially exhibited the unique damping plateau with a wide effective damping temperature range of 132 °C covering from −35 °C to 97 °C, large loss factor of 0.8, high damping coefficient of 0.53, and more hysteresis loss of 0.35. Therefore, this sustainable elastomeric material with adjustable damping performance would absorb more vibrational mechanical energy in a wide temperature range, and have broadened applications in energy-absorption devices and shock-absorbing materials.