Polymer chemicals, specialty polymers

Fermentation-derived organic acids and their esters are potentially important chemical feedstocks for polymers and specialty polymers, but most significantly as alternative solvents for industrial and consumer applications. For example, lactate esters are derived from renewable carbohydrate raw materials such as cornstarch. They exhibit much lower toxicity compared with halogenated hydrocarbons and ethylene glycol ethers and are environmentally benign. Some studies suggested that lactate ester solvents have the potential of replacing petroleum-based solvents... 

Specialty Chemical Manufacturer Construction Chemicals Specialty Polymers Paints Coatings Adhesives... 

When the production scale is relatively small, it is more benelieial to run the distillation process in batch mode. Batch distillation is commonly used in the line chemicals, specialty polymer, biochemical, pharmaceutical, and food industries. Only a single column is needed in batch distillation for multi-component separation, while a continuous distillation system requires multiple columns for such separation. In batch distillation, a single column can handle a wide range of feed compositions, various numbers of components, and various degrees of difficulty in the separation, thus providing great flexibility in the operation. 

In the preface to the first edition of this book pubiished in 2000, we said Industrial applications of homogeneous catalysis are proven, and a much wider application in the future is anticipated. Growth in the area of homogeneous catalysis with transition metal over the last 12 years has been phenomenal, and the innumerable number of patent applications and successful commercialization of selected processes in sectors as diverse as bulk chemicals, specialty polymers, and pharmaceutical intermediates have validated our anticipation. 

Ruthenium-NHC complexes exhibit activity in a very wide field of applications. Due to their unique ability to break and reassemble olefin bonds under reaction conditions very favourable to design simple processes, applications in nearly any chemical discipline can be foreseen. This field may span from manufacturing of specialty polymers and rabbers to pharmaceuticals, pharmaceutical intermediates, agrochemicals, fragrances, dyes, specialty chemicals for electronic applications or fine chemicals from natural feedstock and many more. Below are described Ru-NHC catalysed reactions applied from pilot to full commercial scale. 

Similarly, low volume chemicals are classified according to whether they are sold primarily on the basis of specification or performance. Specialties are generally formulations that are sold on the basis of their performance and their prices reflect their value rather than cost of production. Producers of specialty chemicals often provide extensive technical service to their customers. Examples of specialty chemicals include pharmaceuticals, pesticides, flavours and fragrances, specialty polymers, etc. Fine chemicals, on the other hand, are produced to customer specifications and are often intermediates or active ingredients for specialty chemicals, e.g. pharmaceutical and agrochemical intermediates and bulk actives. 

Plastics additives now constitute a highly successful and essential sector of the chemical industry. Polymer additives are a growing sector of the specialty chemical industry. Some materials that have been sold for over 20 years are regarded today as commodity chemicals, particularly when patents covering their use have expired. Others, however, have a shorter life or have even disappeared almost without trace, e.g. when the production process cannot be made suitably economic, when unforeseen toxicity problems occur or when a new generation of additive renders them technically obsolete. 

Specialty chemicals are formulations of chemicals containing one or more fine chemicals as active ingredients. They are identified according to performance properties. Customers are trades outside the chemical industry and the public. Specialty chemicals are usually sold under brand names. Suppliers have to provide product information. Subcategories are adhesives, agrochemicals, biocides, catalysts, dyestuffs and pigments, enzymes, electronic chemicals, flavors and fragrances, food and feed additives, pharmaceuticals, and specialty polymers (see Chapter 11). 

Specialties 55% ( 990 billion) Additives and catalysts Biocides Dyestuffs and pigments Electronic chemicals Flavors and fragrances Food and feed additives Household and personal care Life science products Specialty polymers / Pharmaceuticals Veterinary drugs Agrochemicals... 

Specialty polymers exhibit particular chemical and mechanical properties, are more expensive and produced in smaller quantities than the large volume /... 

In the area of specialty polymers, we are seeing an explosion of new polymer blends, alloys, and composites. The properties of novel polymer alloys, for example, are significantly better than those of the materials from which they are blended, but many aspects of these alloys are not well understood. Most of the materials consist of multiple polymer phases. But there is still uncertainty as to the desired characteristics and size of the polymer domains and the mechanisms by which forces are transferred through the material. All of these questions will benefit from the chemical engineering approach. 

J. C. Goin, M. Jackel and Y.Ishikawa, Water-Soluble Polymers in Specialty Chemicals, ... 

MIPK 2 and MIK i are fine chemicals used as raw materials in tne production of dyes, agrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, specialty polymers etc. At first sight similar processes as for the manufacture of MIBK seem to be appropriate. Methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) ] reacts with an aqueous solution of formaldehyde... 

Copper-catalyzed oxidations of phenols by dioxygen have attracted considerable interest owing to their relevance to enzymic tyrosinases (which transform phenols into o-quinones equation 24) and laccases (which dimerize or polymerize diphenols),67 and owing to their importance for the synthesis of specialty polymers [poly(phenylene oxides)]599 and fine chemicals (p-benzoquinones, muconic acid). A wide variety of oxidative transformations of phenols can be accomplished in the presence of copper complexes, depending on the reaction conditions, the phenol substituents and the copper catalyst.56... 

Times change, and today almost all of the raw material chemicals, biocide concentrates, phosphonates, and specialty polymers that can be used in modem water treatment formulations are widely available to both large and small companies. Most water treatment companies around the world have potential access to these materials. 

Though the perspective of the industry in general looks rather disheartening, some niches will remain comparatively attractive - generally the more complex and fragmented ones, such as active ingredients for personal care, nanoscale chemicals, or specialty polymers. 

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