What causes rubber to perish most quickly?

Question

Doing an experiment and wonder if people can give me any ideas, extreme heat/cold I know, anything else?

Answer 1

I'd have to agree with the first answer, friction.

Answer 2

Friction.  Eg Car tyres, and pencil erasers

Answer 3

Chemicals cause the fastest degradation of rubber. It's a compound so, as has been stated, anything that attacks the bonds will break it down

Friction degrades the tyre by wearing it down, but that's degradation of the tyre - not of rubber.

The causes are a combination of friction generated heat, which you know about, and little bits of tyre being physically abraided away but  those little bits of tyre are still rubber.

Answer 4

Bacteria can eat natural rubber if wet and chlorine bleach can break its long chain molecules.  UV light and shorter wavelengths (X-rays and gamma rays) can affect rubber.  Certain volatile solvents can harm rubber.  Certain oils can harm rubber unless of special composition (neoprene?).  Of course overstretching rubber causes it to 'perish' fastest of all.

Answer 5

ozone.  Photochemical smog is a tire killer because ozone degrades the sulfide bonds that make rubber elastic.  Degradation of rubber bands was used at one point as a way to measure ozone concentrations in the atmosphere.