Chemistry of plastics

The mutual chemistry of plastic containers and food products must be considered for any proposed application. There is continuous physical and chemical activity at the interface between the food product and the container. The type and extent of this activity determines whether or not the plastic container can successfully hold and protect the food product. However, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the American public are increasingly suspicious of all plastics, particularly the halo-genated compounds. The recent ban (April 1973) on poly(vinyl chloride)... 

Ritchie, P. D., Chemistry of Plastics and High Polymers, New York, Interscience Publishers, 1949. 

Development of plasticizer technology started from very early roots and progressed in step with commercialization of plasticizable resins. Along the way, much of the physical chemistry of plasticization was unraveled and a great many commercial pitfalls were discovered along with the knowledge of how to avoid them. 

A knowledge of the chemistry of plastics can be used to help with the understanding of the performance of designed products. Chemistry is the science that deals with the composition, structure, properties and transformations of substances. It provides the theory of organic chemistry, in particular our understanding of the mechanisms of reactions of carbon (C) compounds. 

Chemists make compounds and strive to understand their reactions. My own interest lies in the chemistry of the compounds of the elements carbon and hydrogen, called hydrocarbons. These make up petroleum oil and natural gas and thus are in many ways essential for everyday life. They generate energy and heat our houses, fuel our cars and airplanes and are raw materials for most manmade materials ranging from plastics to pharmaceuticals. Many of the chemical reactions essential to hydrocarbons are catalyzed by acids and proceed through positive ion intermediates, called carbocations. 

The chemistry of organic sulfur compounds is very rich and organosulfur compounds are incorporated into many molecules. Thiols, or mercaptans as they were originally called, are essential as feedstocks in the manufacture of many types of mbber (qv) and plastics (qv). They are utilized as intermediates in agricultural chemicals, pharmaceuticals (qv), ia flavors and fragrances, and as animal feed supplements. Many reviews have been undertaken on the chemistry of the thiols, regarding both their preparation and their reactions (1 7). 

The chemistry of melamine has been reviewed (63,64). Melamine, although moderately basic, is better considered as the triamide of cyanuric acid than as an aromatic amine (see Cyanuric AND ISOCYANURIC AClDs). Its reactivity is poor in nearly all reactions considered typical for amines. In part, this may be a result of its low solubiUty (see Amino resins and plastics). 

The chemical resistance of a plastics material is as good as its weakest point. If it is intended that a plastics material is to be used in the presence of a certain chemical then each ingredient must be unaffected by the chemical. In the case of a polymer molecule, its chemical reactivity will be determined by the nature of chemical groups present. However, by its very nature there are aspects of chemical reactivity which find no parallel in the chemistry of small molecules and these will be considered in due course. 

Mossman, S.T.E and Morris, P.J.T. (1994) The Development of Plastics (Royal Society of Chemistry, London). 

This book is intended primarily for students in the various fields of engineering but it is felt that students in other disciplines will welcome and benefit from the engineering approach. Since the book has been written as a general introduction to the quantitative aspects of the properties and processing of plastics, the depth of coverage is not as great as may be found in other texts on the physics, chemistry and stress analysis of viscoelastic materials, this has been done deliberately because it is felt that once the material described here has been studied and understood the reader will be in a better position to decide if he requires the more detailed viscoelastic analysis provided by the advanced texts. 

The synthesis of new polymeric materials having complex properties has recently become of great practical importance to polymer chemistry and technology. The synthesis of new materials can be prepared by either their monomers or modification of used polymers in industry. Today, polystyrene (PS), which is widely used in industrial applications as polyolefins and polyvinylchlorides, is also used for the production of plastic materials, which are used instead of metals in technology. For this reason, it is important to synthesize different PS plastic materials. Among the modification of PS, two methods can be considered, viz. physical and chemical modifications. These methods are extensively used to increase physico-mechanical properties, such as resistance to strike, air, or temperature for the synthesizing of new PS plastic materials. 

Stephen A. Leharne School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Greenwich, London, England Guangxian Li Department of Plastics Engineering, Sichuan Union University, Sichuan, China Yu. P. Losev Department of Chemistry, Belarussian State University, Minsk, Belarus Sukumar Maiti Materials Science Centre, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India... 

This chapter discusses synthetic polymers based primarily on monomers produced from petroleum chemicals. The first section covers the synthesis of thermoplastics and engineering resins. The second part reviews thermosetting plastics and their uses. The third part discusses the chemistry of synthetic rubbers, including a brief review on thermoplastic elastomers, which are generally not used for tire production but to make other rubber products. The last section addresses synthetic fibers. 

He received his Ph.D. in 1926 at Kiel working with Otto Dieis. He worked first at I. G. Farbert on the manufacture of plastics but then became professor at the University of Cologne (1940-1958). He snared the 1950 Nobel Prize in chemistry with his mentor, Otto Diels. 

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