Plastics and Composites

Plastics used in everyday practice always contain additives and other modifying components. The goal of modification is the production of a new material which satisfies the requirements of a given application. New plastics can be created much faster by modification than with the development of a new polymerization process. Polymers can be modified with fillers, fibers or other polymers. The growth rate of modified polymers is much larger than that of the economy or the industry. The course discusses the principles of modification and offers information about the application of modified polymers. The preparation, structure and properties of elastomer modified, impact resistant polymers, as well as other polymer blends is discuss less in detail, but more attention is paid to particulate filled polymers and fiber reinforced composites. The course introduces nanocomposites and natural fiber reinforced polymers, which recently created considerable interest both in industry and academia. It presents the potential advantages of these materials, the difficulties encountered during their development and factors which hinder their large scale application. The course pays special attention to structure and interfacial interactions, which play especially important role in the determination of the properties and performance of these heterogeneous polymer systems.