Publisher's Synopsis
This work covers the composition of virtually all polymer blends. Part 1 provides a short history of polymer science and technology. Part 2 summarizes the reasons for, and the scientific principles of, blending and presents the current state of knowledge in the fields of interfacial properties, compatibilization, morphology, flow behaviour and performance. The chronological evolution of blend technology is presented in Parts 3 (commodity resin blends) and 4 (engineering and speciality resin blends). The text seeks to aid in the development of new blends for specific applications. Appendicies cover abbreviations, commercial blend names, examples of major blends and a summary list of patents.;The text presents a systematic discussion of polymer-polymer blends. Evolution of each blend is traced from the very beginning to the present day, providing a description of how the blends were prepared, what compatibilizers and secondary polymeric components were added, what results were obtained and why. The text also focuses on special functional blends, such as blends developed for the control of permeability by gases and liquids, electrostatic dissipative or electrically conductive blends, biodegradable blends and molecular composites, as well as discussing the recycling of polymers and polymer blends.;The books comes complete with a fully searchable CD-ROM database containing information on: international abbreviations for polymers and polymer processing; commercial polymer blends; examples of the major types of polymer blends (complete with supplier name and comments); and polymer blends' discoveries and developments (including year of patent, comments and references for each polymer blend).;This book should be of interest to engineers in the resin manufacturing companies; compounders; processing engineers in the processing industry; lecturers; graduate students; and diploma students in the chemical, chemical engineering and materials science departments.