Polymers and Supercritical CO₂ - An Invention to New Polymer Processing Technologies -

Abstract

Supercritical CO₂ (sc-CO₂) is being utilized for various polymers processing such as polymer blending, additive impregnation and plastic foaming. When CO₂ dissolves into polymers, the polymer chain mobility is enhanced and rheological and thermal properties of the polymer are changed. In this talk, the solubility and the diffusivity of CO₂ in the polymer as well as the CO₂-induced polymer property (i.e., plasticization effects), such as reduction of glass transition temperature and viscosity, are shown with experimental data. Then, CO₂ microcellular polymeric foaming, a CO₂ aided additive infusion and polymer surface modification schemes are introduced to illustrate the potential of CO₂ creating new polymer processing techniques.