Introduction Significance and Prospects of the Stabilization of Polymers and Articles Made from Them

Abstract

The problem of stabilization in the broad meaning of the word is that of the conservation of the initial properties of polymer substances and materials under the most varied influences: heat, radiation, mechanical and chemical influences, primarily oxidation and hydrolysis, and, finally, the influence of microorganisms. It is quite natural that in this effort we come up against all the variety of chemical and structural processes that occur during the breakdown of polymers, and we arrive at the conclusion that stabilization cannot be accomplished for all polymers by any single method. Hence, the particular problem that forms the basis for polymer breakdown must be defined in each case.