文章从合成橡胶的化学基础出发，叙述了合成橡胶工业二十世纪以来的过去、现状，并展望未来。着重讨论了合成化学基础及相应聚合工艺过程的进步这两方面的问题。指出合成橡胶化学基础中活性聚合、可控聚合，包括茂金属催化剂仍为近期的重点；气相聚合工艺将会得到较大的发展；高效聚合釜的研究仍是核心问题；环保问题应更受到重视。

The present review is related to the progress of synthetic rubber industry in this century with special emphasis on the synthetic chemistry, which is the theoretic ground of synthetic rubber. It is forecasted that the living/controlled polymerization of all kinds, their transformation and matallocene system will still take the leading trend in the near future. The progress of the corresponding technology for the manufacture of synthetic rubber will be the gas polymerization process and the polymerization reactor will remain a hot topic to be investigated .