TRENDS IN STRUCTURAL POLYMER SCIENCE IN INDUSTRY

Plastics production has grown rapidly in the past 30 years. The versat ility of plastics which is not exceeded by any other class of material s, guarantees that polymers will continue to be very important in the future. However, at present a distinct change is taking place in polym er research and development. While in the pioneering days of plastics new polymer properties were determined by the choice of suitable monom ers, today the commercialization of polymers from new monomers is rest ricted to a few specialities with a rather modest production volume. O n the other hand, the number of new polymers derived from old monomers is increasing very rapidly. The development of highly selective catal ysts and advances in reactor technology have provided the means for pr oducing new tailor-made polymers. The same is true regarding new polym er blends and alloys based on old polymers: blending immiscible polyme rs yields materials with property profiles superior to the features of the individual components. Using selected examples, this paper will d iscuss trends, possibilities and challenges for structural polymer res earch in industry. (C) 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.