Water Proof Neoprene I am trying to explain to my class why
Neoprene is waterproof, but I lack the in-depth knowledge to do
so. Please assist me Neoprene is a trade name for a class of
synthetic rubber. Most rubbers are polymers built up from
butadiene (H2C=CH-CH=CH2). Isoprene replaces the H of the second
carbon with CH3, chloroprene replaces that H with Cl. In any
case, there are two main reasons why rubbers are waterproof. The
first being that the polymer does not form intermolecular
attractive interactions with water. Most rubbers are only
capable of either London Forces (LF) or Dipole-dipole (DD)
interaction whereas water forms Hydrogen Bonding (HB)
intermolecular forces with itself. The HB forces in water are so
strong and makes the interaction so stable that in order for
anything to interact with water that something must be capable
of replacing the HB forces within water with an interaction that
is equally as strong. Since LF and some DD forces are weaker
than HB, the replacement does not happen. The