Emerging Technologies and Applications for Polymers

Abstract

Abstract This article presents a spotlight on some of the emerging technologies and new markets for polymers. Industries, in general, display cycles of expansion and retraction. Historically, many textbooks cite polymers as an industry whose golden age peaked by the 1970s. However, judging by the levels and variations of R&D activities in the areas of new polymers, blends and alloys, applications, and fabrication and compounding techniques not even discussed here, the field of polymer science appears to be entering a second Renaissance age. Even beyond leadingedge technologies, consumer and industrial demands for conventional applications, and rapidly emerging manufacturing capacities from threshold nations such as Korea to meet worldwide markets, point towards major industrial expansion beyond the next century.