Film casting products

Solution processes are used mainly for coating, film casting and fibre spinning, i.e. in processes where the distance the solvent has to diffuse out of the solution once coated, cast or spun is short. Regulation of this diffusion process is important if products of even quality are to be obtained. 

Poly(vinyl alcohol) is employed for a variety of purposes. Film cast from aqueous alcohol solution is an important release agent in the manufacture of reinforced plastics. Incompletely hydrolysed grades have been developed for water-soluble packages for bath salts, bleaches, insecticides and disinfectants. Techniques for making tubular blown film, similar to that used with polyethylene, have been developed for this purpose. Moulded and extruded products which combine oil resistance with toughness and flexibility are produced in the United States but have never become popular in Europe. 

We use extrusion coating to apply thin layers of polymer to the surface of non-polymeric substrates such as cardboard or aluminum foil. Extrusion coated materials are extensively used in food packaging. Products include the coated cardboard used to make milk cartons and the coated aluminum foil used to seal dairy product tubs. The process of extrusion coating has much in common with film casting. 

Tetrahydrofuran has been reported to exhibit an absorption maximum at 280 nm (52,56), but several workers have shown that this band is not produced by the purified solvent (30,41,57). Oxidation products from THF have been invoked in order to account for the appearance of the 280-nm band in PVC films that are solvent-cast from THF in air (57. 581. However, in some reported cases (56,59), this band was undoubtedly produced, at least in part, by a phenolic antioxidant (2.6-di-tert-butyl-p-cresol)(59) in the solvent. Since certain -alkylphenols have now been shown to be powerful photosensitizers for the dehydrochlorination of PVC (60), it is clear that antioxidant photosensitization might well have been responsible for some of the effects attributed previously (56) to THF alone. On the other hand, enhanced rates of photodegradation under air have also been observed for PVC films cast from purified THF (57), a result which has been ascribed to radical formation during the photooxidation of residual solvent (57,61). Rabek et al. (61) have shown that this photooxidation produces a-HOO-THF, a-HO-THF, and y-butyro-lactone, and they have found that the hydroperoxide product is an effective sensitizer for the photodehydrochlorination of PVC at X = 254 nm (61). 

Two commercial disazo disperse dyes of relatively simple structure were selected for a recent study of photolytic mechanisms [180]. Both dyes were found to undergo photoisomerism in dimethyl phthalate solution and in films cast from a mixture of dye and cellulose acetate. Light-induced isomerisation did not occur in polyester film dyed with the two products, however. The prolonged irradiation of Cl Disperse Yellow 23 (3.161 X = Y = H) either in solution or in the polymer matrix yielded azobenzene and various monosubstituted azobenzenes. Under similar conditions the important derivative Orange 29 (3.161 X = N02, Y = OCH3) was degraded to a mixture of p-nitroaniline and partially reduced disubstituted azobenzenes. 

Film. The blown film process is most commonly used in the production of PB film from resins with melt indexes from 0.3 io 10 g/10 min at a melt temperature of200-215DC using conventional equipment. Mechanical properties of blown PB film depend on the degree of orientation and other processing parameters. PB film can be sealed ai 100 220 (1. Another technique for the PB film production consists of film casting from the melt on polished chilled rolls and co-extrusion or lamination with other films. 

An important breakthrough in PPy chemistry was the discovery by Lee and coworkers95 in 1995 of a chemical polymerization route to an unsubstituted PPy that was soluble in organic solvents. They exploited the surfactant-like qualities of added dodecylbenzenesulfonate (DBSA 9) as a dopant anion to solubilize PPy formed during oxidation of pyrrole by aqueous (Nn4)2S208. The PPy/DBSA product, isolated as a black powder in 42% yield after 40 h reaction at 0°C, was very soluble in m-cresol, and could be dissolved in weakly polar solvents such as chloroform and dichloro-methane by the addition of an equimolar amount of dodecylbenzenesulfonic acid. A film cast from chloroform solution exhibited an electrical conductivity of 5 S cm-1, and its UV-visible spectrum was similar to that of electrochemically deposited PPy. 

Today, polyolefins and polyolefin-based materials are used in many applications. These applications include transportation (automotive, aerospace), packaging, medical, consumer products (toys, appliances, etc.), electronics, cable and wire coating, thermal and acoustic insulation, and building and constmction. Polyolefins can be extruded as filaments (fibers), films (cast and blown), and pipes/profiles. They can be molded into parts of various shapes. They can be foamed with physical and chemical foaming/blowing or/and can be coated onto other materials. 

The solvent-removal technique will also influence the mutual orientation of the aniso-metric clay particles (either single layers or thin tactoids). Precipitation in a non-solvent, or freeze drying, will expectedly yield composites with randomly oriented clay platelets. On the other hand, the composites prepared by film casting, or multilayer film casting [22,23], will be characterized by the preferred orientation of such platelets parallel to the film surface. This particular morphology can be of interest, e.g., in view of the production of films with enhanced barrier properties. 

---