Polymer plastic/rubber

As mentioned in the introduction to this book, there are five major applications for polymers plastics, rubbers, synthetic fibers, surface finishes, and adhesives. Previous sections have dealt with the properties of polymers themselves. Although these properties are undoubtedly most important in determining the ultimate applications, polymers are rarely used in a chemically pure form so in a discussion of the technology of polymers, it is necessary to mention the properties of polymers used for these industrially important applications. There are also numerous modifiers and additives commonly used, which are introduced in Section 18.4, but are useful in many products that fit any of the five applications discussed in the next five chapters. This chapter will focus on simple plastics. 

The radiation and temperature dependent mechanical properties of viscoelastic materials (modulus and loss) are of great interest throughout the plastics, polymer, and rubber from initial design to routine production. There are a number of laboratory research instruments are available to determine these properties. All these hardness tests conducted on polymeric materials involve the penetration of the sample under consideration by loaded spheres or other geometric shapes [1]. Most of these tests are to some extent arbitrary because the penetration of an indenter into viscoelastic material increases with time. For example, standard durometer test (the "Shore A") is widely used to measure the static "hardness" or resistance to indentation. However, it does not measure basic material properties, and its results depend on the specimen geometry (it is difficult to make available the identity of the initial position of the devices on cylinder or spherical surfaces while measuring) and test conditions, and some arbitrary time must be selected to compare different materials. 

An extensive new Section 10 is devoted to polymers, rubbers, fats, oils, and waxes. A discussion of polymers and rubbers is followed by the formulas and key properties of plastic materials. Eor each member and type of the plastic families there is a tabulation of their physical, electrical, mechanical, and thermal properties and characteristics. A similar treatment is accorded the various types of rubber materials. Chemical resistance and gas permeability constants are also given for rubbers and plastics. The section concludes with various constants of fats, oils, and waxes. 

Kumar G., Neelakantan N.R., and Subramanian N., Mechanical behaviour of polyacetal and thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer toughened polyacetal, Polym. Plastics TechnoL Eng., 32, 33, 1993. Newmann W. et al.. Preprints, 4th Rubber Technology Conference, London, May 22-25, 1962. Farrissey W.J. and Shah T.M., Handbook of Thermoplastic Elastomers (Walker B.M. and Rader C.P., eds.). Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 1988. 

Polymers are very large organic molecules that are either made synthetically or are of natural origin, and find use as plastics, rubber, fibers, and coatings. Polymers were first produced commercially in 1860 by modification of cellulose from wood or cotton, followed by a fully synthetic product made from phenol and formaldehyde in 1910. 

Infrared spectroscopy is a major tool for polymer and rubber identification [11,12]. Infrared analysis usually suffices for identification of the plastic material provided absence of complications by interferences from heavy loadings of additives, such as pigments or fillers. As additives can impede the unambiguous assignment of a plastic, it is frequently necessary to separate the plastic from the additives. For example, heavily plasticised PVC may contain up to 60% of a plasticiser, which needs to be removed prior to attempted identification of the polymer. Also an ester plasticiser contained in a nitrile rubber may obscure identification of the polymer. Because typical rubber compounds only contain some 50% polymer direct FUR analysis rarely provides a definitive answer. It is usually necessary first... 

Applications Although Soxtec combines the best qualities of reflux and Soxhlet extractions up to now fairly little evidence has been reported concerning the efficacy of this system for polymer and rubber analysis. Nevertheless, it appears that oligomers and other reaction residues, softeners, antioxidants (e.g. BHT) and several other additives used to modify polymers are easily extracted from PVC, PP, PE, PS, rubber and many other polymeric materials. Also, some leading international plastic, rubber and packaging companies have made Soxtec an integral part of their quality control routines. Some application examples where Soxtec has proved successful are [148] ... 

Applications Conventional TLC was the most successful separation technique in the 1960s and early 1970s for identification of components in plastics. Amos [409] has published a comprehensive review on the use of TLC for various additive types (antioxidants, stabilisers, plasticisers, curing agents, antistatic agents, peroxides) in polymers and rubber vulcanisates (1973 status). More recently, Freitag [429] has reviewed TLC applications in additive analysis. TLC has been extensively applied to the determination of additives in polymer extracts [444,445]. 

J.M. Chalmers and N.J. Everall, Qualitative and quantitative analysis of plastics, polymers and rubbers by vibrational spectroscopy. In N.J. Everall, J.M. Chalmers and P.R. Griffiths (Eds.), Vibrational Spectroscopy of Polymers Principles and Practice, Wiley, Chichester, 2007, pp. 1-67. 

Beniska and Staudner (55) described a different method for the grafting of vinyl polymers on plasticized rubber. In a first stage they performed a degradation at 20-25° C in the presence of oxygen and hydroperoxide groups. The hydroperoxides are decomposed by heat (at 90, 100, and 120°C) with formation of macroradicals which initiate polymerization of monomers. It is claimed that with increasing time of plasticizing and temperature, the conversion of monomers increased. 

Pharmacopeial monographs do not set limits for additives, as they do for plastic polymers, and rubber closure (BP, Appendix XIX, USP (381)) tests are limited to... 

A cellular plaslic has been defined as a plastic the apparent density of which is decreased substantially by die presence of numerous cells disposed throughout its mass, in this article the terms cellular plaslic. foamed plastic, expanded plastic, and plastic foam are used interchangeably in denote all two-phase gas-solid systems in which the solid is continuous and composed of a synthetic polymer or rubber. 

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