Plastics and Polymers

Abstract

Synthetic organic polymers are the most widely used new materials of the 20th century. Their ancestors, naturally occurring macromolecular materials such as natural rubber, wood, cotton, wool and hardened oils, have been known for much longer and valued for the qualities conferred by their basic structure, but the first synthetic polymers were not produced until the 19th century. Synthetic polymers now dominate so many applications-not only as plastics and rubbers but also as fibres, paints and adhesives-that the rate of increase in their consumption is an important barometer of an industrial economy. In this chapter we concentrate mainly on the use of polymers, usually compounded with various additives (e.g., pigments and fillers), to form solid plastics from which components and structures can be formed.