Thermosetting Polymers

Thermosetting polymers (also called thermosets) are a family of plastics characterized by the fact that they are formed starting from a liquid solution that irreversibly leads to a solid material during a heating step. This chapter focuses on some aspects of the chemistry of epoxy polymers because it provides examples of both step-growth and chain-growth polymerizations employed in the synthesis of polymer networks. The chapter explains structural transformations such as gelation, vitrification, that take place during network formation. Then, it talks about rules for processing thermosetting polymers. Processing techniques for thermosetting polymers are described in what follows in relation to the most extended applications.