FUNCTIONAL POLYMERS - AN INTERDISCIPLINAR Y RESEARCH FIELD

Functional polymers differ from structural polymers in various aspects . The most evident difference is their lack of visibility as they are mostly employed in surface applications, e.g. as crystal growth modifi ers to inhibit encrustation in detergents, as hair setting agents, or as electro-conductive films. Additional important differences concerni ng the motivation for new developments, market aspects, and customer r elationships are the subject of this paper. The development of technol ogy and market competence in the field of functional polymers and the special problems of low-volume, high-performance chemicals are discuss ed in detail. The paper deals with examples of recent developments: Po lyaramides for membranes, 3,4-polyethylenedioxythiophene as an electro conductive polymer, polyaspartic acid as a biodegradable polycarboxyla te in detergents, highly crosslinked, insoluble vinylpyrrolidone/vinyl imidazole copolymers for the removal of heavy metals from wine, and fi nally an insoluble, crosslinked polyvinylpyrrolidone-iodine complex fo r the sterile filtration of liquids. The outlook discusses the researc h challenges which remain before a full understanding of the structure /property relationships can be attained.