Composite conventional polymer based

In polymer applications derivatives of oils and fats, such as epoxides, polyols and dimerizations products based on unsaturated fatty acids, are used as plastic additives or components for composites or polymers like polyamides and polyurethanes. In the lubricant sector oleochemically-based fatty acid esters have proved to be powerful alternatives to conventional mineral oil products. For home and personal care applications a wide range of products, such as surfactants, emulsifiers, emollients and waxes, based on vegetable oil derivatives has provided extraordinary performance benefits to the end-customer. Selected products, such as the anionic surfactant fatty alcohol sulfate have been investigated thoroughly with regard to their environmental impact compared with petrochemical based products by life-cycle analysis. Other product examples include carbohydrate-based surfactants as well as oleochemical based emulsifiers, waxes and emollients. 

Protein polymers based on Lys-25 were prepared by recombinant DNA (rDNA) technology and bacterial protein expression. The main advantage of this approach is the ability to directly produce high molecular weight polypeptides of exact amino acid sequence with high fidelity as required for this investigation. In contrast to conventional polymer synthesis, protein biosynthesis proceeds with near-absolute control of macromolecular architecture, i.e., size, composition, sequence, topology, and stereochemistry. Biosynthetic polyfa-amino acids) can be considered as model uniform polymers and may possess unique structures and, hence, materials properties, as a consequence of their sequence specificity [11]. Protein biosynthesis affords an opportunity to completely specify the primary structure of the polypeptide repeat and analyze the effect of sequence and structural uniformity on the properties of the protein network. 

In addition to the above-mentioned conventional polymers, several interesting developments have taken place in the preparation of nanocomposites of MMT with some specialty polymers including the N-heterocyclic polymers like poly (N-vinylcarbazole) (PNVC) [32, 33], polypyrrole (PPY) [34, 35], and polyaromatics such as polyaniline (PANI) [36-38]. PNVC is well known for its high thermal stability [39] and characteristic optoelectronic properties [40-43]. PPY and PANI are known to display electric conductivity [44-46]. Naturally, composites based on these polymers should be expected to lead to novel materials [47,48]. 

Free Radical Initiated Radiation Curable Coating Compositions. Conventional thermally cured coating systems are generally based on the following polymer backbone chemical structures ... 

Several authors used the continuum mechanics for modeling conventional polymer composites as well as PNC. Ren and Krishnamoorti [2003] used a K-BKZ integral constitutive model to predict the steady-state shear behavior of a series of intercalated nanocomposites containing an organo-MMT and a disordered styrene-isoprene diblock copolymer. The model predicts the low-y shear stress properties calculated from the experimental linear stress relaxation and the relaxation-based damping behavior. However, as it does not take into account the effect of clay platelet orientation, it is unable to predict the shear stress behavior at intermediate y and the normal stress behavior at all y and clay contents. 

Abstract Biopolymers are expected to be an alternative for conventional plastics due to the limited resources and soaring petroleum price which will restrict the use of petroleum based plastics in the near future. PLA has attracted the attention of polymer scientist recently as a potential biopolymer to substitute the conventional petroleum based plastics. The chapter aims to highlight on the recent developments in preparation and characterization of PLA blends (biodegradable and non-biodegradable blends), PLA composites (natural fiber and mineral fillers) and PLA nanocomposites (PLA/montmorillonite, PLA/carbon nanotubes and PLA/cellulose nano whiskers). 

In further quest for development of more efficient materials, clue had been provided by ongoing mixed (interdisciplinary) research. Intelligently the immediate inspiration was drawn from mixed systems (i.e., blends, alloys or composites) based on conventional polymers, metals, and ceramics. Soon it was realized that the already established wide applicability of CPs/ICPs can be further expended by formation of multiscale/multiphase systems, e.g., a wide variety of electronically, electrochemically, and/or optoelec-tronically active blends (BLNs), conjugated copolymers (CCPs) and composites (CMPs) [both bulk or nanocomposites (NCs)] or hybrids (HYBs) [11,14-16,52,109,113,120,128,131,132,191-205]. The next section of the chapter covers the fundamental aspects of CP-based BLNs, CCPs, and NCs/ HYBs. In particular, their definitions (including etymology), types, properties, synthetic routes, and practical applications have been discussed with the help of suitable examples from the open literature. 

Almost all types of vegetable oil-based polymer nanocomposites, that is clay/polymer nanocomposites, carbon nanotubes/polymer nanocomposites, metal nanoparticles/polymer nanocomposites (metals such as Ag, Cu, Fe and their oxides) are found in the literature. These have several advantages over their respective pure polymers, or conventional polymer composite systems, and thus have the potential to meet the current demand for advanced polymeric materials. 

Vegetable oil-based highly branched polymers are presented in Chapter 9, including their basic idea, structural concept, characterisation, properties and potential applications in comparison to conventional polymers. Chapter 10 presents the topic of composites based on environmentally degradable and eco-compatible vegetable oil-based polymeric materials. Consideration is given their potential as an advanced environmentally acceptable alternative to petroleum-based materials. 

The term "pressure-sensitive adhesive" (PSA) refers to a permanently tacky composition which will adhere to a variety of surfaces merely by application of light hand pressure. Such materials find widespread application in tapes labels, wall coverings, floor tiles, and protective maskings (1). Typical property requirements for various pressure-sensitive products are shown in Table 1. For decades, such products have been manufactured by the deposition of preformed polymers from solution. However, as concern over energy and environmental problems began to surface, the pressure to find alternate methods of manufacture intensified and the use of solvents declined. The use of radiation to cure such materials in place is but one alternate to the conventional solvent-based approach. 

---