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Interest in preparing new polymers peaked about 1966. Since that
time, industrial and government support for the synthesis and study
of new polymers has steadily declined. Gone are the good days when
government funds supported a great push to attain ulti mate thermal
stability for organic polymeric materials. Gone are the good days
when many chemical companies, encouraged by the obvious potential
for rewards, had great interest and provided support for preparing
new polymers. We now often hear managers say "we have enough
polymers" or "all we need to do is find additional and better ways
to use existing polymers. " The latter often in cludes the
statement, "we can get the new materials that are wanted from
polymer alloys or blends. " Interest in preparing new monomers has
also waned, even though it is well recognized that monomers with
special functionality are greatly needed to fine-tune existing
polymers for specific tasks. Shrinkage of interest in new monomer
and polymer research has not come about solely as a result of the
obvious maturity of the polymers industry. Since uses for polymers
continue to grow and there is still room for good concepts to
study, lack of market growth and fields of study have probably not
significantly contribu ted to that shrinkage."
"Polymer Science and Engineering: Challenges, Needs, and
Opportunities," a report issued in 1981 by the National Research
Council's ad hoc Panel on Polymer Science and Engineering gives
ample support for the urgent need of increased commitment to basic
studies on polymers. Needs and opportunities, mentioned in the
Panel's list, included polymerization methods, specialty polymers,
high performance materials, and in situ (reaction injection
molding) polymerization for direct conversion of monomers/oligomers
to useful shapes. Clearly, in all these and several other areas,
advances in polymer synthesis are needed. Whether one takes a look
at the commodity or specialty polymers area or considers areas of
growing needs, such as polymers for the automotive, aerospace,
electronics, communications, separations, packaging, biomedical,
etc., advances in polymer synthesis are needed. Polymeric
materials, as they are constantly being modified and improved,
fine-tuned for current and additional needs, and more readily
adopted by industry and the public, will have a vastly expanding
influence on everyday life. However, lack of long-term support of
meaningful size for basic research on all facets of polymer
chemistry and engineering, with particular emphasis on making
needed advances in polymer synthesis, could well stunt the growth
of high techn.ology in our country. Expanding this thought, lack of
attention to basic research on polymer synthesis could help foster
or insure that we won't have materials with performance profiles to
meet requirements of emerging technologies and national needs, in a
reasonably economic and timely fashion.
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