Historical Development of IPNs

Staudinger, H. Staudinger s son, began his efforts during this time, applying for the first IPN patent in 1941, which was issued ten years 

Vulcanization of rubber IPN type structure Polymer structure elucidated Graft copolymers 

Thermoplastic elastomers AB crosslinked copolymers Sequential IPNs Latex lENs 

Simultaneous interpenetrating networks IPN nomenclature Thermoplastic IPNs 

While all of the original thought patterns cannot be described here, two more people must be mentioned. Yury Lipatov of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukranian SSR, Kiev, USSR became interested in the interphase regions of IPNs caused by their thermodynamic incompatibility. Dr. Lipatov was the first to consider the IPNs as polymer/polymer composites, where the second network constitutes a filler to the first formed network. 

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