Inert binder

Soon after World War II the hard thermoplastic floor tile was developed. These tiles use coumarone resins as a binder for the other ingredients, which may contain fibrous fillers such as asbestos, inert fillers such as china clay and softeners such as paraffin wax. 

Pigments for finishes are selected on the basis of their colour, but special attention must be paid to inertness in the chosen binder and stability and light fastness under the conditions of application and exposure. Flake pigments such as aluminium and micaceous iron oxide give finishes of lower moisture-vapour permeability than conventional pigments, and consequently contribute to better protection. 

N.S. Cohen et al, A1AA J 12 (2), 212-18 ( qia QQt 135471 (1974V The effects of inert polymer binder properties on composite solid proplnt burning rate are described. Surface pyrolysis data for many polymers over a wide range of conditions are used to derive kinetics constants from Arrhenius plots and heat of... 

Several solid surfaces, such as filter paper, sodium acetate, and silica gel chromatoplates with a polyacrylate binder, have been used in solid-surface luminescence work (1,2). Experimentally it is relatively easy to prepare samples for analysis. With filter paper, for example, a small volume of sample solution is spotted onto the surface, the filter paper is dried, and then the measurement is made. In many cases, an inert gas is passed over the surface during the measurement step to enhance the RTF signal. For powdered samples, the sample preparation procedure is somewhat more involved. Commercial instruments can be readily used to measure the luminescence signals, and a variety of research instruments have been developed to obtain the solid-surface luminescence data (1,2). 

Figure 7.2 shows a typical TLC plate. Some components are visible to the naked eye, but others may need to be visualized. Commonly this can be achieved under a UV light if the compounds themselves fluoresce, or if they alter the behavior of the fluorescent binder. It is also possible to spray the plate with dye or oxidize the compounds with sulfuric acid to make them visible, although the last method will result in the destruction of the sample. Once identified, areas of the stationary phase can be scraped from the inert plate and solvent extracted to yield the separated components for further analysis, if needed. 

CNT randomly dispersed composites Many soft and rigid composites of carbon nanotubes have been reported [17]. The first carbon-nanotube-modified electrode was made from a carbon-nanotube paste using bromoform as an organic binder (though other binders are currently used for the paste formation, i.e. mineral oil) [105]. In this first application, the electrochemistry of dopamine was proved and a reversible behavior was found to occur at low potentials with rates of electron transfer much faster than those observed for graphite electrodes. Carbon-nanotube paste electrodes share the advantages of the classical carbon paste electrode (CPE) such as the feasibility to incorporate different substances, low background current, chemical inertness and an easy renewal nature [106,107]. The added value with CNTs comes from the enhancement of the electron-transfer reactions due to the already discussed mechanisms. 

Plastic explosives contain one or more of the explosives listed above, moulded in an inert, flexible binder. Because powders do not readily hold a shape and TNT is the only common melt-castable explosive, most of the explosive powders (RDX, HMX, PETN, 1,3,5-triamino-2,4,6-trinitrobenzene (TATB)) are plasticized to make a mouldable material, for example, C-4, Semtex H, PE4, sheet explosive. A variety of plasticizers are added, but the maximum level is usually 10-15% because most plasticizers are inert and would degrade explosive output. Plastic explosives were originally developed for convenient use in military demolitions but have since been widely used in terrorist bombs. For detection techniques that rely on vapour signatures, such as canine olfaction, it is worth considering that the plasticizer is much more volatile than the explosive component. 

---