Plastics additives overview

The information provided here is intended as a broad overview of carbon black as an additive in plastics. Additional information, including performance properties of specific grades of carbon black and appropriate health and safety recommendations, is available from carbon black suppliers. 

This overview, for simplicity of presentation, is divided into addition and step-growth polymers rather than commodity plastics and specialty polymers. It... 

TABLE 23 Overview on Additives Commonly Used in Plastic Manufacturing... 

Ti02-mica pigments are used in all color formulations of conventional pigments where brilliance and luster are required in addition to color, i.e., in plastics, coatings, printing, and cosmetics. Table 5.15 contains a comparative overview of Ti02-mica, basic lead carbonate, bismuth oxychloride, and natural fish silver pigments. Some further physical data are summarized in Table 5.16. 

A brief overview of several important aspects of plastics recycling and development in the field has been given above. Some of the topics that have been highlighted in this review will now be elaborated further in the following sections. In addition, waste recycling problems and possibilities relating to a number of common plastics will be discussed. 

Chapter 3 describes the various components of plastics and how they are transformed into three-dimensional functional solids. The chapter is not intended as a technical manual from which polymers can be synthesized and plastics prepared but as an overview of selected procedures and materials relevant to museum professionals concerned with plastics. Knowledge of plastics technology helps to date plastics objects, to interpret chemical analysis of plastics and to understand the causes of deterioration. Polymerization, additives and shaping processes contribute to the physical and chemical properties, useful lifetime and degradation pathways of plastics. The optical, chemical and physical properties of plastics are detailed in Chapter 4. 

The Plastics Handbook provides a fundamental overview of all major process types and related primary machinery, auxiliary and secondary equipment, materials, and additives. 

An annual overview of the current status of additives is provided by W. Hohenber-ger [34] in the journal Plastics. Here are some consumption figures from 2001 (Table 17) ... 

This overview of applications for benzene shows that the three most important products from benzene are used in the manufacture of plastics in the form of polystyrene, phenolic resins and polyamide fibers. Other uses for benzene, of lesser importance in terms of quantity but still extremely versatile, are halogen and nitrogen derivatives for the chemistry of dyestuffs, production of plant protection agents and additives for rubber and plastics processing, as well as for the manufacture of pharmaceuticals. 

This book presents an overview of mixed plastics recycling technology. In addition it characterizes mixed plastics wastes, and describes collection methods, costs, and markets for reprocessed plastics products. While these studies were done for the State of Illinois, with the current national concern about recycling, the information presented will be of interest to anyone involved in municipal re( ciing, and the subsequent processing of postconsumer mixed plastics. 

Relatively few descriptions of direct mass spectral analysis of plastics compounds have appeared in the literature. In a rather early report, additives in PP compounds were thermally desorbed into a heated reservoir inlet for mass spectral analysis [58]. It was found that numerous stabilisers could be identified via 80 eV EI-MS. Thermal, desorption of additives via direct probe introduction of PP compounds was described in a later report [59]. A more recent paper considered the mass spectral analysis of both rubber and plastic compounds. This report was an overview, without much detail. Analysis of additives in PP compounds via direct thermal desorption CI-MS has also been described [45]. 

The rubber industry was the original user of additives, and much of current technology for plastics - both chemicals and equipment - derives from compounding rubber. This chapter gives a brief overview. 

While cellulose fiber reinforced polypropylene (PP) is already used by default for example in the automobile industry for interior parts (Karas and Kaup, 2005), the conventional use of cellulose fiber reinforced PLA is still at the beginning. But there are also some products such as biodegradable urns, mobile phone shells or prototypes of spare tyre covers made from natural fiber reinforced PLA at the market (Anonymous, 2007 Iji, 2008 Grashom, 2007). Maty studies deal with the use of natural fibers as reinforcements in PLA composites. An overview about the mechanical characteristics and apphcation areas of natural fiber-reinforced PLA can be foimd for example in Bhardwaj and Mohanty (2007), Avella et al. (2009), Ganster and Fink (2006), Jo-noobi et al. (2010), and Graupner et al. (2009). For the improvement of the composite characteristics it is still necessary to carry out optimization processes for fibers, PLA matrix and the interactions of both. Moreover the processing parameters, force elongation characteristics of fibers and matrix as well as the use of additives like plasticizers or adhesion promoters have decisive influences on the mechanical characteristics of the composites. 

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