After the rain, the children like to run out in rainboots and step on the water soundly. There are many styles of rain shoes nowadays, with popular Disney images, Happy Sheep or other cartoon patterns printed on the outside. It's really beautiful. If you keep these lovely rain shoes all the time, after a few years, you will find that they will become hard and very brittle, and they are easy to crack after being exposed to the sun. These phenomena are called "aging" of rubber

The biggest disadvantage of rubber is that it is quite easy to age. Rubber aging refers to the gradual deterioration of the physical and chemical properties and mechanical properties of rubber and its products due to the combined effect of internal and external factors during the processing, storage and use of rubber and its products, and finally the loss of use value. It is characterized by cracking, tackiness, hardening, softening, chalking, discoloration, mildew, etc.

Speaking of rubber aging, it is really a very complex problem. Because there are many reasons that can lead to rubber aging, such as oxidation, ozone cracking, thermal oxygen aging, light action, mechanical stress. In addition, water, oil, chemical media, variable metal ions, high-energy radiation, electricity, biology and other factors may act on rubber. Moreover, it is often the result of multiple factors. For example, rubber shoes exposed to the sun easily lead to rubber aging, which is the result of light, oxidation and thermal oxygen aging.

The sun contains a lot of ultraviolet rays, which will damage the rubber. In addition to the direct breakage and cross-linking of rubber molecular chains caused by ultraviolet radiation, rubber absorbs light energy and generates free radicals, which initiate and accelerate the oxidation chain reaction process. At the same time, the high heat of sunlight can also separate the sulfur atom from the raw rubber, destroying its molecular structure. In this way, the rubber will lose its elasticity and the binding force between molecules, so it will be cracked and damaged.

Therefore, if you want to prolong the life of your rubber shoes, you should put them in a dark and ventilated place for drying every time you wash them, instead of exposing them to the sun or baking them by the stove. They should not be put together with kerosene, gasoline and other articles that can dissolve rubber.