This book outlines a methodology for producing macro recycled polypropylene (PP) fibres with optimal mechanical properties and illustrates the reinforcing effects of recycled PP fibres in concrete. It describes the great potential of using these fibres in concrete applications such as footpaths and precast elements. Further, it sheds new light on the environmental impacts of using recycled PP fibres, which are evaluated by means of cradle to gate life cycle assessment based on the Australian context. The use of recycled PP fibre not only helps reduce consumption of virgin materials like steel or plastic but also provides an attractive avenue for recycling plastic waste. The book will appeal to engineers, governments, and solid waste planners, and offers a valuable reference for the plastic waste recycling and plastic fibre reinforced concrete industries.

This book is concerned with polymeric hydrogels, which are considered as one of the most promising types of new polymer-based materials. Each chapter in this book describes a selected class of polymeric hydrogels, such as superabsorbent hybrid nanohydrogels, conducting polymer hydrogels, polysaccharide-based or protein-based hydrogels, or gels based on synthetic polymers. In this way, the book also addresses some of the fascinating properties and applications of polymeric hydrogels: they are three-dimensional, hydrophilic, polymeric networks that can absorb, swell and retain large quantities of water or aqueous fluids. In combination with metal nanoparticles, nanofibrils or nanowhiskers, which may be embedded in the gels, they find widespread applications, ranging from agriculture, and waste water treatment, over electronics, to pharmaceutical and biomedical applications. Applications mentioned in this book include electro sensors, capacitors, electromechanical actuators, and even artificial muscles.

A comprehensive and up to date survey of the science and technology of polymeric dispersions. The book discusses the kinetics and mechanisms of polymerization in dispersed media, examines the processes controlling particle morphology, presents both off-line and on-line methods for the characterization of polymer colloids, considers reactor engineering and control, and covers a wide variety of applications, such as latex paint formulations, encapsulation of inorganic particles, reactive latexes, adhesives, paper coating, and biomedical and pharmaceutical applications. Audience: A valuable resource for scientists and engineers, academic and industrial, who are involved in the manufacture or application of polymeric dispersions.

This book offers concise information on the properties of polymeric materials, particularly those most relevant to physical chemistry and chemical physics. Extensive updates and revisions to each chapter include eleven new chapters on novel polymeric structures, reinforcing phases in polymers, and experiments on single polymer chains. The study of complex materials is highly interdisciplinary, and new findings are scattered among a large selection of scientific and engineering journals. This book brings together data from experts in the different disciplines contributing to the rapidly growing area of polymers and complex materials.

This is the first volume of a two-volume work which summarizes in an edited format and in a fairly comprehensive manner many of the recent technical research accomplishments in the area of Elastomers. Advances in Elastomers discusses the various attempts reported on solving these problems from the point of view of the chemistry and the structure of elastomers, highlighting the drawbacks and advantages of each method. It summarize the importance of elastomers and their multiphase systems in human life and industry, and covers all the topics related to recent advances in elastomers, their blends, IPNs, composites and nanocomposites.

This first volume focuses on advances on the blends and interpenetrating networks (IPNs) of elastomers.

This multicontributor volume reviews the state-of-the-art in this important area of polymer structure. The understanding of polymer structure and morphology is examined from both theoretical and experimental viewpoints. Includes crystalline, amorphous and liquid crystalline polymers.

The technique of smal1-angle soattering (SAS) is now about sixty years o1d. Soon after the first observations of, a continuous, intense X-ray scattering near the primary beam from samp1es such as canbo:tt,bla:cks, it was recognized that this scattering arose from e1ectron density heterogeneities on a scale of severa! tens to severa! hundred times the wave1ength of the radiation used. By the time the classic monograph of Guinier and Foumet appeared in 1955, much of the basic theory and instrumentation had been developed, and applications to colloidal suspensions, macromolecular solutions inc1uding proteins and viruses, fibers, porous and finely divided solids, metallic alloys etc. numbered in the hundreds. Following severa! specialized meetings, the first international conference on small-ang1e X-ray scattering was helditi, Syracuse in 1965, marked by the presentation of new scattering theory for polydisperse systems, polymer coils and filaments, new instrumentation (the Bonse-Hart camera), and new applications to polymeric, biologica!, and metallic systems, to critica! phenomena and to catalysts. The second conference (Graz, 1970) no longer dealt exclusively with X- ray scattering, but also inc1uded neutron small-angle scattering (SANS). SANS applications developed rapidly during this period, especially for studying synthetic and biologica! macromolecules, when the possibilities of exploiting scattering Iength density differences, created by selective deuteration, were recognized.

This book comprehensively covers researches on enzymatic polymerization and related enzymatic approaches to produce well-defined polymers, which is valuable and promising for conducting green polymer chemistry. It consists of twelve chapters, including the following topics: The three classes of enzymes, oxidoreductases, transferases and hydrolases, have been employed as catalysts for enzymatic polymerization and modification; Well-defined polysaccharides are produced by enzymatic polymerization catalyzed by hydrolases and transferases; Hydrolase-catalyzed polycondensation and ring-opening polymerization are disclosed to produce a variety of polyesters; Polyesters are synthesized by in-vivo acyltransferase catalysis produced by microorganisms; Enzymatic polymerization catalyzed by appropriate enzymes also produces polypeptides and other polymers; Poly(aromatic)s are obtained by enzymatic polymerization catalyzed by oxidoreductases and their model complexes; Such enzymes also induce oxidative polymerization of vinyl monomers; Enzymatic modification of polymers is achieved to produce functionalized polymeric materials; The enzymatic polymerization is a green process with non-toxic catalysts, high catalyst efficiency, green solvents and renewable starting materials, and minimal by-products; Moreover, renewable resources like biomass are potentially employed as a starting substrate, producing useful polymeric materials. This book is not only educative to young polymer chemists like graduate students but also suggestive to industrial researchers, showing the importance of the future direction of polymer synthesis for maintaining a sustainable society.

In Uses of Immobilized Biological Compounds the reader will find a comprehensive survey of the field written by acknowledged experts who met in Brixen, Italy, between May 9 and 14, 1993 for a NATO Advanced Research Workshop devoted to the topic. The resulting volume presents a critical review of the latest results in the area and sets guidelines for future research. The 53 reports presented here cover: (A) General Aspects of Immobilizing Biological Compounds; (B) Medical, Clinical and Pharmaceutical Applications; (e Electrochemical Biosensors; (E) Defense Applications; (F) Immunosensors and Receptors; (G) Food, Environmental, Clinical and Analytical Applications; and (H) Biotechnology and Marketing. In short, all aspects of the area are presented, in a compact format which will appeal to undergraduates, technicians, and professional scientists in the food, clinical, environmental, pharmaceutical and industrial fields.

1. Highlights recent advances in material science and armour technology 2. Provides information on computational methods for armour design 3. Discusses stress waves and penetration mechanics 4. Covers human vulnerability and reactive armour systems

Derived from the fourth edition of the well-known "Plastics Technology Handbook," Industrial Polymers, Specialty Polymers, and Their Applications covers a wide range of general and special types of polymers, along with a wealth of information about their applications.

The book first focuses on commonly used industrial polymers, including polypropylenes, low- and high-density polyethylenes, and poly(vinyl chloride), as well as less widely used polymer types, such as acrylics, ether polymers, cellulosics, sulfide polymers, silicones, polysulfones, polyether ether ketones, and polybenzimidazoles. It then explores polymer derivatives and polymeric combinations that play special and often critical roles in diverse fields of human activities. The polymers covered include liquid crystal, electroactive, ionic, and shape memory polymers; hydrogels; and nanocomposites. The volume concludes with a comprehensive overview of new developments in the use of polymers in a variety of areas.

This book constitutes the Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Conjugated Polymers held at the University of Mons, Belgium, during the first week of September 1989. The Workshop was attended by about fifty scientists representing most of the leading research groups within NATO countries, that have contributed to the development of conjugated polymeric materials. The program was focused on applications related to electrical conductivity and nonlinear optics. The attendance was well balanced with a blend of researchers from academic, industrial, and government labs, and including synthetic chemists, physical chemists, physicists, materials scientists, and theoreticians. The Workshop provided an especially timely opportunity to discuss the important progress that has taken place in the field of Conjugated Polymers in the late eighties as well as the enormous potential that lies in front of us. Among the recent significant developments in the field, we can cite for instance: (i) The discovery of novel synthetic routes affording conjugated polymers -that are much better characterized, especially through control of the molecular weight; - that can be processed from solution or the melt; the early promise that conducting polymcrs would constitute materials combining the electrical conductivities of metals with the mechanical properties of plastics is now being realized; -that can reach remarkably high conductivities.

Plastic objects are included more than ever in museums and galleries collections these days, but these items can start to deteriorate when they a just a few years old. In this book Yvonne Shashoua provides the essential knowledge needed to keep plastic pieces in the best possible condition so that they can continue to be enjoyed for many years. The historical development of plastics, as well as the technology, their physical and chemical properties, identification, degradation and conservation are all clearly and concisely covered within this single volume, making it an invaluable reference for the increasing number of conservators and curators that are encountering plastics in their day to day work.

This book is devoted to a nontraditional class of materials which are manufactured by the melt-blowing process - i.e. by extrusion of polymer melt followed by fiber stretching with a gas stream. For the first time extensive data on classical and modern modifications of this technology are generalized and a review is given of extrusion head dies and subsidiary equipment. The text examines the structure and main properties of melt-blown materials as conditioned by peculiarities of overheated polymer melt spraying in an oxidizing medium. Information is given about filtering mechanisms and the main types of polymer fibrous filtering materials: electret, magnetic, adsorptional, bactericidic, and about carriers of microorganisms in biofilters. Social and ecological aspects of the application of melt-blown materials are analyzed.

In this book a systematic discussion of crack problems in elastic-plastic materials is presented. The state of the art in fracture mechanics research and assessment of cracks is documented, with the help of analytic, asymptotic methods as well as finite element computations. After a brief introduction to fracture mechanics, the two-parameter concept for stationary cracks is studied in addition to the issues in three-dimensional crack fields under coupling with strong out-of-plane effects. Cracks along interfaces and crack growth problems under mixed mode conditions are also treated. A systematic study of stress singularities for different notches is accompanied by detailed finite element computations.

* It has been rumored that a bumble bee has such aerodynamic deficiencies that it should be incapable of flight. Fiberglass-reinforced polymer com posites, similarly, have two (apparently) insurmountable obstacles to per formance: 1) Water can hydrolyze any conceivable bond between organic and inorganic phase, and 2) Stresses across the interface during temperature cycling (resulting from a mismatch in thermal expansion coefficients) may exceed the strength of one of the phases. Organofunctional silanes are hybrid organic-inorganic compounds that are used as coupling agents across the organic-inorganic interface to help overcome these two obstacles to composite performance. One of their functions is to use the hydrolytic action of water under equilibrium condi tions to relieve thermally induced stresses across the interface. If equilib rium conditions can be maintained, the two problems act to cancel each other out. Coupling agents are defined primarily as materials that improve the practical adhesive bond of polymer to mineral. This may involve an increase in true adhesion, but it may also involve improved wetting, rheology, and other handling properties. The coupling agent may also modify the inter phase region to strengthen the organic and inorganic boundary layers."

This book is about thin films; what they are, how they are prepared, how they are characterized, and what they are used for. The contents of this book not only showcase the diversity of thin films, but also reveals the commonality among the work performed in a variety of areas. The chapters in this volume are based on invited papers presented by prominent researchers in the field at a Symposium on "Thin Films: Preparation, Characterization, Applications" at the 221st National Meeting of the American Chemical Society held in San Diego, California. The coverage of the symposium was extensive; topics ranged from highly-ordered metal adlayers on well-defined electrode surfaces to bio-organic films on non-metallic nanoparticles. An objective of this book is for the readers to be able to draw from the experience and results of others in order to improve and expand the understanding of the science and technology of their own thin films systems.

Blends of natural rubber with speciality synthetic rubbers, such as nitrile rubber and ethylene propylene rubbers, have, in the past, failed to combine the best properties of polymers, resulting in a poor return in terms of added value from the blending process. The idea of blending synthetic rubbers with natural rubbe is certainly not a new one, but it is only now that this can be shown to be possible with consistently positive resluts, but eh use of novel techniques which this book describes, giving valuable information on the technology required and the results which can be achieved. Blends of Natural Rubber is an invaluable source of information for all those working in the area of rubber technology and polymer blend technology.

After epoxy resins and polyimides, cyanate esters arguably form the most well-developed group of high-temperature, thermosetting polymers. They possess a number of desirable performance characteristics which make them of increasing technological importance, where their somewhat higher costs are acceptable. The principal end uses for cyanate esters are as matrix resins for printed wiring board laminates and structural composites. For the electronics markets, the low dielectric loss characteristics, dimen sional stability at molten solder temperatures and excellent adhesion to conductor metals at temperatures up to 250 DegreesC, are desirable. In their use in aerospace composites, unmodified cyanate esters offer twice the frac ture toughness of multifunctional epoxies, while achieving a service tem perature intermediate between epoxy and bis-maleimide capabilities. Applications in radome construction and aircraft with reduced radar signatures utilize the unusually low capacitance properties of cyanate esters and associated low dissipation factors. While a number of commercial cyanate ester monomers and prepoly mers are now available, to date there has been no comprehensive review of the chemistry and recent technological applications of this versatile family of resins. The aims of the present text are to present these in a com pact, readable form. The work is primarily aimed at materials scientists and polymer technologists involved in research and development in the chemical, electronics, aerospace and adhesives industries. It is hoped that advanced undergraduates and postgraduates in polymer chemistry and technology, and materials science/technology will find it a useful introduc tion and source of reference in the course of their studies.

This book is designed for the chemist, formulator, student, teacher, forensic scientist, or others who wish to investigate the composition of polymeric materials. Theinformationwithinthesepagesisintendedtoarmthereaderwiththenecessary workingknowledgetoanalyze, characterize, anddeformulatematerials. ThestructureoftheContentsisintendedtoassistthereaderinquicklylocating the subject of interest and proceed to it with a minimum of expended time and effort. The Contents provides an outline of major topics and relevant materials char- terizedforthereader'sconvenience. Anintroductiontoanalysisanddeformulation is provided in Chapter 1 to acquaint the reader with analytical methods and their applications. Extensive references are provided as additional sources ofinfor- tion. All tables arelocatedin theAppendix, beginning onp. 235. GUIDE FOR USE This is a practical book structured to efficiently use the reader's time with a minimum effort of searching for entries and information by following these brief instructions: 1. Searchthe Contents and/orIndex fora subject withinthe text. 2. Analysis/deformulation principles are discussed at the outset to familiarize the reader with analysis methods and instruments; followed by formu- tions, materials, and analysis ofpaint, plastics, adhesives, and inks; and finally reformulation methods to test the results of analysis. 3. Materials and a wide assortment of formulations are discussed within the text by chapter/section number. 4. Materials are referred toby various names (trivial, trade, and scientific), and these are listed in tables and cross-referenced to aid the reader.