Encyclopedia of Polymer and Rubber Additives

The Encyclopedia of Polymer and Rubber Additives is an invaluable reference for chemists, engineers, and other professionals. It provides a complete set of tables, classifications, and information related to a wide variety of commercially used additives for polymers and rubbers. The book details the characteristics of hundreds of additives that can improve performance in terms of physical properties, stability, and storage life; provide colorants; reduce cost; improve processing or assembly; extend shelf life; enhance purity and minimize environmental impact.

Polymer additives are at the center of the development of new products, and the majority of existing technologies cannot be implemented without them. Future forecasts predict the further expansion of their production as follows.

 The plastic additives market is projected to be worth USD 65.85 billion by 2028, registering a CAGR of 6.12% during the forecast period (2021-2028). 
 The plasticizer market will grow by 6% from the year 2022-2030, ending with global production of USD 29.77 billion. 
 The global polymer market was valued at US$533.6 billion in 2019 and is projected to witness a CAGR of 5.1% during the forecast period (2020–2030), reaching $838.5 billion by 2030. This is majorly attributed to the increasing demand for the product in the packaging, automotive, and electronics industries. 
The growth in polymer additives will be much faster than the growth of the population for this period, which is predicted to be ~0.9% per year. Also, the production of additives is expected to increase faster than the production of polymers, which by itself is a good testimony to the fact that the emphasis on additives gradually increased. That is not surprising since they, at small doses, influence many properties beyond the reach of polymers alone. It should also be noticed that less than 8% expenditure on additives (as compared with the cost of polymers) makes such a big difference in their performance. Usually, the incorporation of additives increases physicomechanical and chemical properties by tens (and sometimes hundreds) of percent. 
Existing handbooks on polymer additives usually concentrate on slightly more than 10 major additives, whereas the list is substantially longer, including 88 groups of additives used by all segments of the polymer and rubber industries. 
All the above groups of additives are included in the Encyclopedia of Polymer and Rubber Additives. Each group of additives is discussed in a systematic manner to facilitate information retrieval and comparison. The contents of information on each group of additives have the following outline.
Typical chemical structures
Table including Name(s); CAS#; EC#; Origin; Main function(s); Outstanding features; Recommended for polymers; Recommended for products; Incorporation technology; Amounts required. The table includes the essential data on the range of products that belong to the group. This is followed by 3 subchapters entitled.
 Mechanism(s) of action, suitable features, and modifications
 Influences and interferences in complex formulations
 Evidence of performance from experimental studies.
The subchapters, having contents based on the most recent scientific research data and patent literature, illustrate and emphasize important features, performance characteristics, and benefits of the use of each group of additives, as well as provide a list of significant references. 

The Encyclopedia of Polymer and Rubber Additives is the most comprehensive reference to the date on polymer engineering science. The book documents how polymer properties and performance can be improved through the use of additives, which are substances added during polymer production or processing to alter the physical and chemical properties of plastic products.

In today’s environment, the manufacturer of additives not only must provide a product that works and gives competitive benefits, but the product should not be harmful to people and the environment, and the manufacture of additives should not deplete existing resources; therefore, it should contain as much as possible of renewable content. With this in mind, a separate publication has been created, namely Databook of the Most Important Polymer and Rubber Additives, which contains technical data on essential additives used today. This book concentrates on providing data in tabular form for chemical compounds that prevail in the market. Information is organized into five sections. Three sections contain data important for the application of additives, such as the composition of additives, their physicomechanical properties, and many use and application data. The other two sections permit evaluation of the potential toxicity of products and their effect on the environment. 
Both books supplement each other, and they were designed to be complementary sources of information on polymer additives.

Both books (Encyclopedia and Databook) are must-have references for public technical libraries, governmental bodies involved with rubber and plastics, university and departmental chemical libraries, and companies that have any involvement with plastics or rubber. It should be noticed from the Table of Contents below that both books contain an unprecedented number of groups of additives and are discussed in depth, never published before in any form of publication. In addition, the majority of groups contain The Encyclopedia of Polymer and Rubber Additives references to monographic sources which contain even more in-depth knowledge of the subject.