The use of supercritical fluids (SCFs) in the polymer industry presents an opportunity to create unique products both now and in the future as demand and usage of the technology further develops. This report provides a comprehensive overview of the current research.

SCFs are currently the subjects of intense research and commercial interest. Applications such as the RESS (rapid expansion of supercritical fluid solutions) process are part of standard industrial practice. In view of their ever-growing importance in the polymer industry there is a need to fully comprehend how supercritical fluids interrelate with polymeric materials to realise the potential that can be gained from their use.

In Polymer Processing with Supercritical Fluids, the authors review the basic principles of SCFs and their application within the polymer industry: characteristics and properties, extraction of unwanted residual products, polymerisation solvents, and polymer impregnation. Processing applications such as plasticisation, foaming and blending are also considered. There is discussion of the potential within the polymer recycling industry for use of SCFs as cleaning agents or within supercritical oxidation processes.

Around 400 references with abstracts from recent global literature accompany this review, sourced from the Polymer Library, to facilitate further reading. A subject index and a company index are included.

About the authors...
This Rapra Review Report is written by Vannessa Goodship, a Senior Research Fellow at Warwick Manufacturing Group with 15 years experience in industry and expertise in injection moulding technology, and Erich Ogur currently studying for his PhD in Engineering in the area of polymer processing after working for Royal Dutch Shell Ltd.

CONTENTS

1 Supercritical Fluids
1.1 What is a Supercritical Fluid
1.2 Solvent Strength
1.3 Advantages of Supercritical Fluids
1.4 Polymers in Supercritical Carbon Dioxide (scCO2)
1.4.1 Amorphous and Semi-Crystalline Polymers
1.5 Supercritical Water (SCW)
1.5.1 Properties: Dielectric Constant
1.5.2 Properties: Ion Product
1.6 Supercritical Methanol
1.7 Supercritical Nitrogen

2 Polymer Applications of Supercritical Fluids
2.1 Extraction and Purification
2.2 The Basic Principles of SCF Extraction of Polymers
2.2.1 Choosing Solvent(s) for Supercritical Fluid Extraction (SFE)
2.2.2 Applications of SFE
2.3 Use of SCFs in Polymerisation
2.3.1 Introduction
2.4 Impregnation
2.5 Supercritical Fluid Dyeing (SFD)
2.6 Rapid Expansion of Supercritical Fluid Solutions (RESS Process)
2.7 Supercritical Anti-Solvents Precipitation (SASP)

3 Processing Applications of SCF Technology
3.1 Plasticisation of Polymers
3.2 Extrusion
3.2.1 Microcellular Foams
3.2.2 MuCell Extrusion Technology
3.3 Injection Moulding
3.3.1 Trexel: The MuCell System
3.3.2 Ergocell
3.3.3 Optifoam Process
3.3.4 Foamold
3.3.5 Applications and Properties of Microcellular Foams
3.4 Microcellular Blow Moulding
3.5 Blending

4 Hardening of Polymers
5.1 Mechanical Recycling
5.2 Chemical Recycling

5 Recycling and Recovery

6 Conclusions

Additional References
Subject Index
Company Index