Issues in the Comparison between Artificially and Naturally Degraded Polymer Materials
A special issue of Polymers (ISSN 2073-4360). This special issue belongs to the section "Biobased and Biodegradable Polymers".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2023) | Viewed by 3417
Special Issue Editors
Interests: analytical techniques; chromatography; sample preparation; FTIR analysis
Interests: development of degradable, biobased and/or recyclable polymers; polymer degradation and recycling; valorization of waste/by-products to value added chemicals and carbon products for further utilization in design of new additives; polymers and composites; additive manufacturing; materials for packaging, biomedical and environmental applications
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Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Like all materials, polymers and products made from them are subjected to degradation from the moment they are synthesised, throughout their useful life, and ultimately during their entire lifetime. This includes the time they spend polluting the environment as waste.
This is reflected in various degradation phenomena, such as yellowing, embrittlement, sweating of plasticisers, or material fatigue. In order to avoid such phenomena within the planned service life, numerous standardised artificial ageing procedures have been developed that use harsher-than-real-life conditions. These tools allow a rapid evaluation of the stability of different formulations of the same material for a given use or application, providing an idea of their long-term stability. The final purpose is to guarantee the durability of a product for a certain period of time.
How reliable are artificially ageing protocols, though? A validation of the results is seldom possible, since naturally aged specimens are too lengthy to obtain. Additionally, results are often supported by the study of a few relevant parameters to a given material application, such as certain mechanical properties. Important questions remain unanswered in the current state of the art: how do artificial decay processes differ from natural ones? What is the minimum set of parameters that need to be evaluated in order to establish whether artificial ageing sufficiently reproduces the course and/or consequences of natural ageing?
This Special Issue hopes to encourage researchers to report instances where artificial degradation does not perform as expected or does not reproduce natural degradation faithfully, to explore the factors that play a role in this and ultimately achieve a body of data that can signal the way to fine-tune artificial degradation protocols to better mimic natural ageing.
Articles are welcome that document “failed” artificial degradation, examples of modified artificial degradation protocols leading to better mimicking of natural ageing, and the comparison of artificial and natural aged plastics or polymers. Both reports of indoor and outdoor (weathering) ageing are welcome.
Dr. Elena Gómez-Sánchez
Prof. Dr. Minna Hakkarainen
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- artificial ageing
- natural ageing
- simulation
- chemical degradation
- degradation phenomena
- polymer degradation mechanism
- long-term stability
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