PolyOne (United States)

Abstract The vinyl industry has a rich history of providing solutions to society's needs. These include flame‐resistant wire insulation, piping systems for safe drinking water, and weatherable, flame‐resistant systems for siding, windows, auto interiors, floors, and pool liners. Also included are shatter‐resistant clear containers with handles, safe blood supplies and intravenous solutions, and flame‐resistant computer housings and electrical boxes. These are but a few of the things of which the vinyl industry can be proud. The vinyl industry is mature, and as in many other mature industries, much of the technical and business effort goes into running the day‐to‐day businesses, putting out fires, reducing costs, and driving efficiencies. If poorly managed, this will be an all‐consuming effort, leaving no thought and no effort at all on longer‐term business opportunities. The future will look much different than today. Identifying future trends will allow well‐managed companies, looking for these future business opportunities, to seek out and set aside some efforts for developing future technologies and businesses. In this paper we discuss some future trends and needs, such as inexpensive and safe drinking water, personalized public transportation, prevention of resource depletion, high‐powered energy packages, nonpolluting energy sources, human genetic engineering, e‐bombs, and computers. The opportunities for the vinyl industry to participate in these changes also are discussed.

Abstract The tertiary chlorine (Clt) content of vinyl chloride/2‐chloropropene copolymers [P(VC‐co‐2CP)] was determined by NMR spectroscopy. Copolymers containing 6.8–47.0 Clt's per P(VC‐co‐2CP) chain were used to initiate the cationic grafting of α‐methylstyrene, norbornadiene, indene, and norbornene with Et2AlCl under various conditions. Grafting was demonstrated by selective solvent extraction, and the effect of the experimental conditions on the grafting efficiency was examined. Select rheological and thermal characteristics of P(VC‐co‐2CP) grafts, including the glass‐transition temperature, heat deflection temperature, and discoloration upon heating, were studied. P(VC‐co‐2CP) carrying 7–11 poly(α‐methylstyrene) or polynorbornadiene branches per chain raised the glass‐transition temperature to, or above, that of a blend control. P(VC‐co‐2CP)s fitted with polyindene or polynorbornene branches were less effective in raising the mechanical properties. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 40: 3644–3651, 2002