There are many emerging approaches to chemically recycling thermoset resins.  This post will present an overview of the current approaches to address the end-of-life considerations in thermoset materials. Figure 1 shows a schematic of the various approaches used to address the thermoset recycling challenge. Figure 1. High level chemical recycling pathways [1] The upper portion of the flow chart depicts the approach of using degradable linkages or incorporating degradable moieties into the thermoset network.  The lower portion of the flowchart depicts the utilization of dynamic coval ..read more

This post is part one of a multiple part series on the topic of end-of-life considerations for thermosets.  There is currently a lot of discussion in the press regarding recycling, ocean plastic, littering, and other considerations regarding how to handle plastics after their original use.  This series will focus only on thermosets, which up until recently have been only considered for mechanical re-use (grinding and using as filler) and very limited chemical recycling.  Let’s start the discussion on end-of-life for thermosets as shown in Figure 1. Figure 1. Thermoplastic proce ..read more

It’s been a while since new content was added to the blog.  Starting next Monday, I will start a new series on Thermoset Re-use and Recycling.  The posts will discuss some of the emerging trends in vitrimers and chemical recycling. Subsequently, I will return to discussions around polymers in electronics, specifically low Dk/Df polymers for 5G applications. The new posts will publish every other Monday mornings (two posts per month) If you are not already a subscriber, use the sign-up button in the right sidebar and the new posts will be sent to your inbox when published. Thank ..read more

Every year I like to present the Chemistree! Seasons Greetings and Best Wishes for a Prosperous New Year! The post Seasons Greetings and Happy Holidays appeared first on Polymer Innovation Blog ..read more

Special recognition to my late father, Captain Douglas E. Gotro, US Army, Korean War Veteran and my late brother Craig A. Gotro, Senior Airman, US Air Force. The post Remembering our Fallen Heroes on Veterans Day appeared first on Polymer Innovation Blog ..read more

Guest post by Jeremy Pasatta, Advanced Polymer Coatings Previous blog posts on toughening have looked at the need for tougheners in thermosets, the two main toughening technologies, RLP and coreshell particles, along with methods of how to measure toughness and typical increases in toughness with RLP and coreshell particles.  In this blog post we will look at another form of toughening technology, block copolymers. Block copolymers contain long segments of one type of monomer, and can have two or more of these segments, where segments are on the molecular weight order of a few thousand Da ..read more

Guest post by Jeremy Pasatta, Advanced Polymer Coatings Now that we have looked at the theory of toughening thermosets with second phase tougheners along with the two most common tougheners (RLP and coreshell particles) let’s look at how we measure the toughness of thermosets.  There are several different methods to measure the toughness of thermosets, and the method that is chosen often depends on the type of thermoset, the application, and exactly how the thermoset is being used withing the application.  Table 1 gives an overview of the different ways of measuring thermoset toughne ..read more

Guest post by Jeremy Pasatta, Advanced Polymer Coatings The previous two blog posts have looked at both the fundamentals of toughening thermosets as well as one of the most common technologies used to toughen thermosets – Reactive Liquid Polymers and CTBN.  In this blog post, we’ll look at toughening thermosets with coreshell particles. Coreshell particles are exactly as the name implies, particles that contain a low modulus, low Tg core that is incompatible with the matrix resin, and to solubilize the particles within thermoset, a thin shell that is matrix compatible is placed on the out ..read more

Join me at the IMAPS International Symposium on Microelectronics in October. I will be presenting a Professional Development Course on: Polymers for Wafer Level Packaging Monday, October 2 at 10:30 AM. Course Description The course has been completely updated to include a detailed discussion of the polymers and polymer-related processing for Fan-Out Wafer Level (FOWLP) packaging as well as Fan-Out Panel Level packaging (FOPLP). The course will provide an overview of the important structure-property-process-performance relationships for polymers used in wafer level packaging.  The main le ..read more

Guest post by Jeremy Pasatta, Advanced Polymer Coatings In the previous blog post, we explored the reasons why thermosets benefit from the addition of second phase tougheners.  One of the most successful and widely used forms of second phase tougheners is Reactive Liquid Polymers, or RLP.  RLP can be any polymer that is low enough in molecular weight to be able to flow at room temperature, and they also have sites capable of reacting with the matrix resin.  Initially, these polymers are compatible with the matrix resin and form a one phase homogeneous system.  As the curing ..read more