Developments in Polymeric Materials
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 July 2016
Strictly many materials such as ceramics, cement and even metals should be classed as polymers since the atoms within them are bound by strong chemical bonds into large groups usually of indefinite size. This article will deal only with the synthetic organic polymers and, in fact, will consider mainly the plastics, little attention being given to rubbers and fibres.
The industrial production of synthetic plastics has expanded greatly in the post-war years largely using petroleum as the starting material. The plastics produced do not have good mechanical properties compared, say, to metals and have other limitations such as poor resistance to heat and inflammability.