Raw Materials and Energy: A Challenge for Polymer Research

Abstract

Abstract The substantial rapid growth of synthetic polymers—plastics, man‐made fibers, films, rubbers, and coatings—which continued unabated over many years, suffered a severe setback for the first time in 1973–1974 followed by another in 1980. A major cause of these reverses was the changed situation with respect to raw materials and energy. For industrial polymer research, in particular, this presents a fresh challenge with considerably changed priorities. The individual ways of meeting this challenge are highlighted and illustrated by examples: the search for alternative raw material sources for monomers; the development of economic methods for production and processing of polymers; the recycling of polymers; and finally the development of new raw material‐saving and energy‐saving technologies based on the use of polymers. In the future, the applications of polymers to new technologies such as communication‐ and information‐systems or biotechnology will join the traditional uses. But the efforts required in research and development to achieve this demand wide‐ranging interdisciplinary cooperation on an even greater scale than hitherto.