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Michael Sepe Independent Consultant
Tracing the History of Polymeric Materials -- Part 29: Polyurethane
This material family has unparalleled versatility, not only in terms of the forms the material can take, but in the different ways in which it can be processed.
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Tracing the History of Polymeric Materials, Part 28: Making LCP's Melt Processable
Liquid-crystal polymers based on a single monomer produces a polymer with a very high melting point.This presents two problems. Here’s how they were solved.
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Tracing the History of Polymeric Materials, Part 27: Liquid-Crystal Polymers
Liquid-crystal polymers debuted in the mid-1980s, but the history of the chemistry associated with this class of materials actually starts a century earlier.
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Tracing the History of Polymeric Materials, Part 26: High-Performance Thermoplastics
The majority of the polymers that today we rely on for outstanding performance — such as polysulfone, polyethersulfone, polyphenylsulfone and PPS — were introduced in the period between 1965 and 1985. Here’s how they entered your toolbox of engineering of materials.
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Tracing the History of Polymeric Materials, Part 25: Silicones
The long road to the development of silicone resulted in a chemistry that is remarkably versatile.
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Tracing the History of Polymeric Materials: Silicones
More properly known as siloxanes, silicones are a class of materials where no carbon is present in the polymer backbone.
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Tracing the History of Polymeric Materials: Polyphenylene Oxide
Behind the scenes of the discovery of PPO.
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Tracing the History of Polymeric Materials: The Commercialization of Acrylic
We covered the invention of acrylic in our last installment. Here, we discuss its commercial development.
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Tracing the History of Polymeric Materials: Aliphatic Polyketone
Aliphatic polyketone is a material that gets little attention but is similar in chemistry to nylons, polyesters and acetals.
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Tracing the History of Polymeric Materials: Acetal
The road from discovery in the lab to commercial viability can be long, and this was certainly the case for acetal polymers.
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Tracing the History of Polymeric Materials: The Differences Between Nylons & Polyesters
In many respects, nylons and polyesters appear to be interchangeable. But there are interesting differences in the properties of these two families that arise from their chemical structures.
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