Blends and their Applications

Table 3.4 Some Examples of Typical Polyethylene Blends and Their Applications.

The worldwide commercialization of polymer blends has been directed at the replacement of traditional materials, such as metals and ceramics. Even though plastics can be more costly than other types of materials on a weight basis, they are often more economical in terms of production and manufacturing cost, mainly attributed to the less complex assembly of plastic parts that can be easily formed in complex-finished shapes [1, 21-26], Blending is a convenient route to the time-efficient and cost-effective upgrading of commodity resins and to the tailoring of these resins to specific performance profiles for the desired application. The most common polymer blends and their applications are described below. 

Cui W, Kerres J (2001) Acid-base polymer blends and their application in membrane processes. US Patent 6,194,474... 

In the following sections of this chapter, the types of reactive polymers, their preparation methods, the chemical reactions they undergo during blending, and their applications are presented. 

Table 7.1 Nanofillers for polymer/particle blends and their applications (selected examples).

S. Simone, A. Figoli, A. Criscuoli, M.C. Camevale, A. Rosselli, and E. Drioh, Preparation of hollow fibre membranes from PVDF/PVP blends and their application in VMD, Journal of Membrane Science 364(2010) 219-232, doi 10.1016/j.memsci.2010.08.013. 

In this chapter we have discussed the thermodynamic formation of blends and their behavior. Both miscible and immiscible blends can be created to provide a balance of physical properties based on the individual polymers. The appropriate choice of the blend components can create polymeric materials with excellent properties. On the down side, their manufacture can be rather tricky due to rheological and thermodynamic considerations. In addition, they can experience issues with stability after manufacture due to phase segregation and phase growth. Despite these complications, they offer polymer engineers and material scientists a broad array of materials to meet many demanding application needs. 

Simon, G.P. 2003. Polymer Characterization Techniques and Their Application to Blends. Oxford University Press, Oxford. 

Chen ZA, Deng MC, Yong C, He GH, Ming W, and Wang JD. Preparation and performance of cellulose acetate/polyethyleneimine blend microfiltration membranes and their applications. J. Membr. Sci. 2004 235 73-86. 

Chen X, Liu JH, Feng ZC, and Shao ZZ. Macroporous chitosan/carboxymethylclellulose blend membranes and their application for lysozyme adsorption. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2005 96 1267-1274. 

Van Zyl AJ and Kerres JA. Development of new ionomer blend membranes, their characterization and their application in the perstractive separation of alkene-alkane mixtures. II. Electrical and facilitated transport properties. J Appl Pol Sci 1999 74 422-427. 

This review discusses a newly proposed class of tempering Monte Carlo methods and their application to the study of complex fluids. The methods are based on a combination of the expanded grand canonical ensemble formalism (or simple tempering) and the multidimensional parallel tempering technique. We first introduce the method in the framework of a general ensemble. We then discuss a few implementations for specific systems, including primitive models of electrolytes, vapor-liquid and liquid-liquid phase behavior for homopolymers, copolymers, and blends of flexible and semiflexible... 

R. A. Shanks and G. Amarasinghe, Application of differential scanning calorimetry to analysis of polymer blends, in Polymer Characterization Techniques and Their Application to Blends, G. Simon (ed.), Oxford University Press, New York, 2003, pp. 22-67. 

In contrast to equilibrium thermodynamics, the thermodynamics of irreversible processes portray the application of thermodynamic methods as dynamic and therefore time-dependent procedures. The name Prigo-gine must be mentioned in relationship to this—he received for his work in this area the Nobel Prize in the year 1977. A new, very complex thermodynamics originated from his examination method for chemical reactions, and was developed by us, to come to a successful description of heterogenous multiphase polymer systems. This theory interprets crazing fracture energy dissipation and fracture mechanism in a totally new way on the basis of dissipative structures in polymer blends and their dynamics, For a list of abbreviations used in this section sec page 610,... 

Polymer Characterization Techniques and Their Application to Blends, ed. G.P. Simon, Oxford University Press, Inc., New York, N.Y., 2003 R 277 A.K. Whittaker, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Studies of Polymer Blends , p. 461... 

Cheng and English edited ACS symposium series which covers the solution and solid state NMR investigations for dendrimers, cellulose, polyurethane, polyolefins biopolymers, copolymers and so on. Spiess described a historical overview of role of NMR spectroscopy in polymer science. Newmark summarizes the two dimensional and pulsed gradient diffusion NMR experiments and their applications to polymers Shit et al. reviewed the analysis of polymer molecular weight and copolymer composition by NMR. Sasanuma summarized the the analysis of polyethers and polysulfides by NMR and theoretical calcula-tions Ardelean et al described the principle and its applications of diffusion studies by NMR. Roy et al summarized the structural analysis of Novolak resins by multidimensional NMR. Reviews about NMR study of surfactant polymer blends and the structural elucidation of supramocules are published. 

Whittaker, A. K., Editor(s) Simon, G. P. Polymer Characterization Techniques and Their Application to Blends, 2003,461-503 Spiess, H. W., Macromolecular Symposia, 2003,201, 85-88 Li, Jun Rajca, Andrzej Rajca, Suchada., Synthetic Metals, 2003,137,1507-1508 Komenda, Thomas Jordan, Rainer., Polymer Preprints American Chemical Society, Division of Polymer Chemistry), 2003,44, 986-987... 

Sivakumar, M., Malaisamy, R., Sajitha, C. J., Mohan, D., Mohan, V., Rangarajan, R. (2000). Preparation and performance of cellulose acetate-polyurethane blend membranes and their applications-11, I.Membr.Set. 169,215-228. 

L. Han, D. Qin, X. Jiang, Y. Liu, L. Wang, J. Chen, Y. Cao, Synthesis of High Quality Zinc-Blende CdSe Nanocrystals and Their Application in Hybrid Solar Cells. Nanotechnology 2006,17,4736-4742. 

Oigan SJ (1994) Phase separation in blends of poly(hydroxybutyrate) with poly(hydroxybutyrate-co-hydiox5rvalerate) variation with blend components. Polymer 35 86-92 Oigan SJ, Barham PJ (1993) Phase separation in a blend of poly(hydroxybutyrate) with poly(hydroxybutyrate-co-hydroxyvalerate). Polymer 34 459-467 Ouyang SP, Liu Q, Fang L, Chen GQ (2007) Construction of a p/w-operon-defined knockout mutants of Pseudcmonas putida KT2442 and their applications in poly(hydroxyalkanoate) production. Macromol Biosd 7 227—233... 

This section introduces a novel application of IR spectroscopy, namely IR imaging, and the specific sampling technique of attenuated total reflectance (ATR). FTIR imaging in ATR mode allows one to visualize the spatial distribution of different components in polymeric materials and to study directly the effect of high-pressure CO2 on this distribution. This novel approach should benefit polymer scientists studying polymer blends and their processing with SCCO2. 

Biomaterials have been defined as materials which are compatible with living systems. In order to be biocompatible with host tissues, the surface of an implant must posses suitable chemical, physical (surface morphology) and biological properties. Over the last 30 years, various biomaterials and their applications, as well as the applications of biopolymers and their biocomposites for medical applications have been reported. These materials can be classified into natural and synthetic biopolymers. Synthetic biopolymers are cheaper and possess better mechanical properties. However, because of the low biocompatibility of synthetic biopolymers compared with that of natural biopolymers, such as polysaccharides, lipids, and proteins, attention has turned towards natural biopolymers. On the other hand, natural biopolymers usually have weak mechanical properties, and therefore much effort has been made to improve them by blending with some filler. 

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