Life SciencesScience Insider
You may have seen rubber bands get brittle when they age. But they last longer when refrigerated. Do You know why?
Vidunenahawula Website (National Institute of Fundamental Studies)
Have you ever noticed that some objects tend to expand when they get hot and contract when they cool down? Rubber is a polymer formed from chains of molecules and the molecules vibrate more intensely when it gets hot. As they bump into one another harder, this causes the rubber band to break. That’s what happens when rubber bands age. Also, when a rubber band is stretched it causes its polymer chains to become very ordered and it expels thermal energy (heat). But when a rubber band is in its relaxed state it is very unordered. So, when a rubber band is kept in the refrigerator it makes the polymers even more relaxed just like the way they behave in the relaxed state.
