Modern day construction, packaging, tyres, footwear, flooring and adhesives are just some of the many everyday applications of synthetic rubber.

The raw material for synthetic rubber is butadiene which owes its production from benzene and butene to palladium's unique hydrogen-absorbing qualities. A palladium membrane absorbs hydrogen atoms from butene molecules and passes them over to benzene, leaving butadiene (and producing which is the raw material for nylon).