Reactive Processing of Thermoplastic Polymers: A Review of the Fundamental Aspects

Abstract

Abstract The review is devoted to the fundamental aspects of the reactive processing of thermoplastic polymers. First of all, some reactive processing examples, including polymer grafting (vinyl silane, maleic anhydride) and/or functionalization, bulk polymerization (urethane, lactams, acrylate, ∊-capolactone), polyester modification and new copolymers synthesis, are presented. From a fundamental point of view, the review covers the state of the art in the domains of rheology (specifically modelling of rheo-kinetics), diffusion and mixing in highly viscous reactive or non reactive media. Finally, 1, 2 and 3-D simulation of the reactive extrusion process in twin-screw extruder is reported at the end of the review.