Symposium
Editors: P. Dubois, G. Groeninckx, R. Jerome,
R. Legras
Wiley-VCH, 2006, ISBN 3-527-31336-2
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Content
doi:10.1002/masy.200690035
Preface
About
300 scientists from 35 countries attended this
first joint meeting between the 8th European Symposium
on Polymer Blends and Eurofillers 2005, organized
in the historical city of Bruges, Belgium, from May 9
to May 12, 2005. They all discussed 16 plenary/keynote
lectures, 44 oral communications and more than 200 poster
presentations.
''MaterialsDesign,PerformanceandProblem
Solving'' was the general theme of this meeting, actually
organized by laboratories offourBelgianuniversities activeinpolymer-based
materials. The Chairing Committee was composed of Prof.
Ph. Dubois, University of Mons-Hainaut, Mons, Prof. G.
Groeninckx, Catholic University of Leuven, Heverlee, Prof.
R. Jerome, University ofLiege, Liege, and Prof. R. Legras,
Catholic University of Leuven, Louvain-la-Neuve, thus
both in Belgium. This Symposium was sponsored by IUPAC,
but also by Belgian FWO-Flanders and FNRS, as well as
by various companies.
The
purpose of this international joint symposium clearly
stimulated dialogues between specialists in complementary
fields, including physicists, chemists and engineers,
with expertise in both organic and inorganic materials.
Design and synthesis of base materials is the very first
step of innovation on materials and processes, followed
by the search for synergy by appropriate combinations
of these materials under different forms and shapes -
films, coatings, foams, packagings, scaffolds, ... - for
a large range of applications including electronics, energy,
life sciences and technology, environment, etc.
The
topics discussed all along this joint meeting included:
In
the field of ''Polymer Blends'':
_ Innovations in generation and control of phase morphology,
including theoretical approaches and numerical simulations
_ Reactive processing: reactive compatibilisation, dynamic
crosslinking, polymer chemistry in the melt
_ Interfaces and interphases: control, characterisation
and modelling
_ Structure-mechanical performance relationships
_ Specific polymer blends (including recycling) and their
applications;
In
the field of ''Fillers and Filled Polymers'':
_ Preparation and characterisation of (nano) fillers of
all shapes and functions
_ Formulations of (nano)fillers with polymers:
nanocomposites, natural fibre composites, organic-inorganic
hybrid materials
_ Adhesion between (nano)fillers and polymers
_ Structure-property relationships of (nano)composites,
including confined crystallisation issues
_ Industrial applications of filled polymers in automotive,
electronic, biomedical and packaging area.
This
first joint meeting demonstrated that the problems faced
in the domains ''filled polymers'' and ''polymer blends''
are most often very similar to each other and there-fore
should deserve attention and discussion from both scientific
communities. The present volume covers most of the plenary
and oral contributions presented at the meeting.
On
behalf of the organizing committee, I want to express
a sincere thank to all of the active contributors and
participants.
For
the organizing Committee,
Philippe
Dubois