Encyclopedia of Polymer Blends, Volume 3: Structure

Book Preface

Encyclopedia of polymer blends will include scientific publications in various reas of blends. Polymer lends are mixtures of two or more polymers and/or copolymers. Polymer blending is used to develop new materials with synergistic properties that are not achievable with individual components without having to synthesize and scale up new macromolecules. Along with a classical description of polymer blends, articles in the encyclopedia will describe recently proposed theories and concepts that may not be accepted yet but reflect future develop-ment. Each article provides current points of view on the subject matter. These up-to-date reviews are very helpful for understanding the present status of sci-ence and technology related to polymer blends.

The encyclopedia will be the source of existing knowledge related to polymer blends and will consist of five volumes. Volume 1 describes the fundamentals including the basic principles of polymer blending, thermodynamics, miscible, immiscible, and compatible blends, kinetics, and composition and temperature dependence of phase separation. Volume 2 provides the principles, equipment, and machinery for polymer blend processing. Volume 3 deals with the structure of blended materials that governs their properties. Volume 4 describes various properties of polymer blends. Volume 5 discusses the blended materials and their industrial, automotive, aerospace, and other high technology applications. Individual articles in the encyclopedia describe the topics with historical per-spective, the state-of-the-art science and technology and its future.

This encyclopedia is intended for use by academicians, scientists, engineers, researchers, and graduate students working on polymers and their blends.

Volume 3 is devoted to the structure of blended materials that governs their properties and consists of seven chapters. These chapters cover glass transition phenomena, crystallization and melting behavior, structure–property relation-ship, morphology and structure of polymer blends, and blends containing vari-ous nanofillers. Existing theoretical approaches to describe morphology and structure of blends are extensively discussed. The importance of flow, rheology of components, and rheological aspects of blends is emphasized. These aspects are detailed below and build on each other.