Accelerated Characterization of Polymer Properties

This report describes the efforts to develop a suite of microanalysis techniques that can rapidly measure a variety of polymer properties of industrial importance, including thermal, photo-oxidative, and color stability; as well as ductility, viscosity, and mechanical and antistatic properties. Additional goals of the project were to direct the development of these techniques toward simultaneous measurements of multiple polymer samples of small size in real time using non-destructive and/or parallel or rapid sequential measurements, to develop microcompounding techniques for preparing polymers with additives, and to demonstrate that samples prepared in the microcompounder could be analyzed directly or used in rapid off-line measurements. These enabling technologies are the crucial precursors to the development of high-throughput screening (HTS) methodologies for the polymer additives industry whereby the rate of development of new additives and polymer formulations can be greatly accelerated.