Thermoplastic elastomers: fundamentals and applications

Thermoplastic elastomers are multi-functional polymeric materials that gene rally possess the processability of thermoplastics and the elasticity of vu lcanized rubber. Intrinsic thermoplastic elastomers include microphase-sepa rated block and segmented copolymers containing a soft (low-T-g) species. R ecent achievements regarding thermoplastic elastomer block and segmented co polymers in the past year have improved the current understanding of (i) co mplex nanostructures in unary and multicomponent systems and (ii) the therm ally-activated sphere --> cylinder and cylinder --> gyroid order-order tran sitions. The use of these materials in organogel, electro-responsive and na nocomposite applications illustrates the diversity and future potential of these technologically important materials. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. A ll rights reserved.