Due
to concerns regarding fuel consumption and environmental issues
arising from the use of elastomers, particularly in the automobile
industry, we investigated the strategy of fabricating elastomers based
on the biogenic β-myrcene and styrene using living anionic polymerization
and successfully cross-linked these elastomers with sulfur. Furthermore,
the dynamic viscoelastic and mechanical behaviors of these cured elastomers
were investigated. Amazingly, the damping factor (tan δ) of
the homopolymer of β-myrcene increased to 2.8 and exhibited
a good damping potential. In addition, the satisfying wet skid resistance
and rolling resistance performance were obtained for the copolymer
with styrene. Meanwhile, the tensile strength and elongation at break
of the copolymer were approximately 1.4 MPa and 230%, respectively.
Moreover, the mechanical performance of the copolymer was distinctly
improved after reinforcement with carbon black or silica. In particular,
the tensile strength of copolymers filled with 30 phr carbon black
or silica increased by 220–378%. On the basis of preliminary
results, we believe that the elastomer with biogenic myrcene is a
versatile and outstanding candidate future elastomer material.