High-tonnage polymeric materials

Although most of the everyday, high-tonnage polymers in present use are insulators, this book is devoted to an important class of recently developed polymers that conduct. Many polymeric materials can be formed into thin, mechanically strong films, and it is obviously desirable to confer the additional property of electrical conductivity on polymers that already benefit from being flexible and compact. Consequently, much ingenuity has been displayed over the past decade or more in developing plastic and elastomeric materials which conduct ions and/or electrons [1-5]. 

Amylopectin is the polymeric component of starch and consists mainly of glucose units joined at the 1,4-positions. Relative molar mass tends to be very high, e.g. between 7 and 70 million. A variety of modified starches are used commercially which are produced by derivatisation to give materials such as ethanoates (acetates), phosphates, and hydroxyalkyl ethers. Modified and unmodified starches are used in approximately equal tonnages, mainly in papermaking, paper coatings, paper adhesives, textile sizes, and food thickeners. 

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