MUNDOMATERIAL

If up to now I’ve discussed materials and companies that produce them, today I’m going to change a bit the perspective. Today I’m going to talk about skateboarding. I know is not a traditional product, but I got curious yesterday watching them jumping around about what kind of materials can withstand such treatment. It also exemplifies one of the most innovative markets in the materials world, leisure sports. If you still can’t see my point, then think about skiing, surfing, windsurfing or snowboarding. And I don’t mean only the boards themselves, there is also all the market generated by accessories like protective equipment, things like helmets, kneepads, elbow pads, etc. It’s a big market, it’s growing and a substantial part of it is added value products. It’s also a good place to test materials and judge their performance. The product I guess there aren’t that many material’s experts that know much about the fascinating world... 
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Thermoplastic elastomers, or TPEs, deserve a post of their own, as they are an interesting polymeric family that is not very well known. You can find a good introduction in Wikipedia. If you are not familiar with Wikipedia, give it a go, you’ll be surprise how thorough it can be considering is free. Just be careful to check the facts elsewhere afterwards, as anyone can edit an entry and some are almost like corporative pages. Coming back to the initial issue, TPEs have rubber and thermoplastic properties. This combination of properties is achieved by blends of elastomers and thermoplastics or by using copolymers. Usually elastomers are thermosets and the crosslinking is by a covalent created during vulcanisation. TPEs crosslinked thanks to weaker bonds or by bonds being created in only one of TPE’s phases. In the previous table you can see types of TPEs commercialised, some companies that produced them and their trade name. Links are at the bottom of the post. Arkema and DuPont... 
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As I already mentioned in Bioplastics, there are two main types of renewable plastics: Identical chemistry to oil based plastics New chemistry Today I’m going to tell you a bit what’s being done to renew old plastics thanks to natural resources. Companies involved in the production of these plastics know very well the biggest advantage of their materials with respect to other bioplastics: direct substitution. Since their composition is the same as very common plastics, like PE or PU, they save users the need to adapt their processes. On the other hand, it only needs to be marketed as an improved product, of added value, in already existing markets. Great part of the job of bioplastics producers has being until recently to explain their products and find applications, more than selling sizeable amounts of it. For this reason, big polyolefin producers have already moved to add renewable products to their portfolio. Dow, I have already explained its growth and diversification... 
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The 10th of July Dow announced the buying of Rohm & Haas for $18.8 billions. For those of you not familiar with the companies, let’s just say that Dow is a huge chemical company, with annual sales of $54 billions. Rohm & Haas is a smaller player, but it has specialised products, which have a better profit margin. And those differences are the key to understand this sale. Dow becomes an even bigger company, but also it acquires a business less dependant on massive sales that allows it to diversify its portfolio. The table below shows Dow’s divisions, together with the products managed by each. Dow's Products and Divisions. Source: Dow's webpage In the materials area, Dow is well known for selling commodity products. Amongst them, the big classics: PP, PE and PS. To stay alive in the world of commodities, sales have to be huge and a strong distribution network is required. Production capacities are so big that costs are lowered. On the other hand, such a big company... 
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Before I start, I would like to say that this post intends to be a brief introduction to the wide field of bioplastics, which I intend to discuss in more detail in the future. Let’s say that it’s a guide for those of you who are not familiar with this family of products. When talking about bioplastics, we usually refer to polymers sourced partial or totally from natural and renewable resources. Some of them have a different chemistry from already existing plastics while others are as common in their oil based form as polyolefins or polyurethane. Today I’m going to talk about the “new” ones; soon I’ll discuss how old plastics are renewing themselves thanks to plants. There are two main rivals at the moment in the bioplastics market: PLA, or polylactic acid, and starch based blends. Both are mainly sourced from corn, although any plant rich in starch or sugar can potentially be a viable source. They also share their capacity to biodegrade, a quality that... 
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