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Polymer science

Designer polymer blends

Nature Materials volume 1, pages 8–10 (2002)Cite this article

As Benjamin Braddock was told in the film The Graduate “plastics” are big business. But with a limited palette of polymers to choose from, the industry has long sought to combine desirable properties from several polymers into new blends.

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Figure 1: Adding a compatibilizing agent, such as a diblock copolymer, to a polymer blend can improve its stability, but is more likely to result in a dispersed rather than a co-continuous morphology.
Figure 2: A stable co-continuous polymer blend with a minority dark blue phase and a majority turquoise phase.

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  1. Chemistry Department, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, S3 7HF, UK

    Anthony J. Ryan

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  1. Anthony J. Ryan
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Ryan, A. Designer polymer blends. Nature Mater 1, 8–10 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat720

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