ABSTRACT:Two butadiene polymers were used in this investigation, one with 98.5% cis-1,4 units and the other with an approximately equibinary mixture of cis and trans units. Elastomeric networks prepared from these polymers were studied in elongation, in both the swollen and unswollen states over the temperature range -30 to 95°C. There is evidence for crystallization in these networks, particularly as manifested by marked increases in birefringence at relatively low elongations and at temperatures as high as 40°C. As expected, the birefringence and related quantities were found to be more sensitive to crystallization than the force, with the opticalconfiguration parameter and the stress-optical coefficient showing the greatest sensitivity. In the case of the cis-trans copolymer, the crystallization involves trans sequences, which are of relatively high melting point, and thus occurs at a temperature higher than for the lower melting cis sequences in the high-cis networks. The results which were free from the effects of network crystallization were used to calculate values of the temperature coefficient of the unperturbed dimensions of the chains, and values of the optical-configuration parameter. These configuration-dependent properties were found to be in satisfactory agreement with previously published theoretical results based on a rotational isomeric state model of these chain molecules.