Polymers and Other Advanced Materials

Abstract

The structure-morphology-property relationship of such classical solids as metals, oxides and ceramics, and of organic crystals has been quite successfully explored, but our corresponding knowledge of polymeric materials is still very incomplete. The work in progress today considers the very different magnitudes of domains and numbers of dislocations in these two classes of materials, the differences in the interfaces, and the much greater extensibility of the polymeric molecule. Most progress has been made so far in the field of highly crystalline polymers, of block co-polymers, and of polymers filled or laminated with reinforcing or rubberizing agents. Here again, a great deal of work has centered on the role of chain mobility in the dissipation of energy, the special part played by the interphase as locus of flaw formation or stoppage, and on the very large structure changes during work hardening. © 1976, Walter de Gruyter. All rights reserved.