Materials Science of Polymers : Plastics, Rubber, Blends, and Composites

Technical and technological development demands the creation of new materials that are stronger, more reliable, and more durable—materials with new properties. This book skillfully blends and integrates polymer science, plastic technology, and rubber technology to highlight new developments and trends in advanced polyblends. The fundamentals of polymerization, polymer characteristics, rheology and morphology, as well as composition, technology, testing and evaluation of various plastics, rubbers, fibers, adhesives, coatings, and composites are comprehensively presented in this informative volume.

The book presents the developments of advanced polyblends and the respective tools to characterize and predict the material properties and behavior. It provides important original and theoretical experimental results that use non-routine methodologies often unfamiliar to many readers. Furthermore chapters on novel applications of more familiar experimental techniques and analyses of composite problems are included, which indicate the need for the new experimental approaches that are presented.

This new book:

• Provides an up-to-date and thorough exposition of the present state of the art of polyblends and composites

• Familiarizes the reader with new aspects of the techniques used in the examination of polymers, emphasizing plastic technology and rubber technology

• Describes the types of techniques now available to the polymer chemist and technician and discusses their capabilities, limitations, and applications

• Provides a balance between materials science and the mechanics aspects, basic and applied research, and high-technology and high-volume (low-cost) composite development

Entrepreneurs and professionals engaged in production of as well as research and development in polymers will find the information presented here valuable and informative.

A. K. Haghi, PhD, holds a BSc in urban and environmental engineering from University of North Carolina (USA); a MSc in mechanical engineering from North Carolina A&T State University (USA); a DEA in applied mechanics, acoustics and materials from Université de Technologie de Compiègne (France); and a PhD in engineering sciences from Université de Franche-Comté (France). He is the author and editor of 165 books as well as 1000 published papers in various journals and conference proceedings. Dr. Haghi has received several grants, consulted for a number of major corporations, and is a frequent speaker to national and international audiences. Since 1983, he served as a professor at several universities. He is currently editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Chemoinformatics and Chemical Engineering and Polymers Research Journal and on the editorial boards of many international journals. He is a member of the Canadian Research and Development Center of Sciences and Cultures (CRDCSC), Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Eduardo A. Castro, PhD, is full professor in theoretical chemistry at the Universidad Nacional de La Plata and a career investigator with the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas, both based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He is the author of nearly 1000 academic papers in theoretical chemistry and other topics, and he has published several books. He serves on the editorial advisory boards of several chemistry journals and is often an invited speaker at international conferences in South America and elsewhere.

Dr. Sabu Thomas is the director of the School of Chemical Sciences, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, India. He is also a full professor of polymer science and engineering and the honorary director of the Centre for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology of the same university. He is a fellow of many professional bodies. Professor Thomas has authored or co-authored many papers in international peer-reviewed journals in the area of polymer processing. He has organized several international conferences and has more than 420 publications, 11 books, and two patents to his credit. He has been involved in a number of books both as author and editor. He is a reviewer to many international journals and has received many awards for his excellent work in polymer processing. His h Index is 42. Professor Thomas is listed as the 5th position in the list of Most Productive Researchers in India, in 2008.

P. M. Sivakumar, PhD, is a foreign postdoctoral researcher (FPR) at RIKEN, Wako Campus, in Japan. RIKEN is Japan's largest comprehensive research institution renowned for high-quality research in a diverse range of scientific disciplines. He received his PhD from the Department of Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, India. He is a member of the editorial boards of several journals and has published papers in international peer-reviewed journals and professional conferences. His research interests include bionanotechnology and biomaterials.

Andrew G. Mercader, PhD, studied physical chemistry at the Faculty of Chemistry of La Plata National University (UNLP), Buenos Aires, Argentina, from 1995-2001. Afterwards he joined Shell Argentina to work as a luboil, asphalts, and distillation process technologist as well as safeguarding and project technologist, from 2001-2006. His PhD work on the development and applications of QSAR/QSPR theory was performed at the Theoretical and Applied Research Institute located at La Plata National University (INIFTA), from 2006-2009. He obtained a post-doctoral scholarship to work on theoretical-experimental studies of biflavonoids at IBIMOL (ex PRALIB), Faculty of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, University of Buenos Aires (UBA), from 2009-2012. He is currently a member of the Scientific Researcher Career in the Argentina National Research Council at INIFTA.