Peculiarities of Self-Organization in the Production of Interpenetrating Polymer Networks

Interpenetrating polymer networks (IPN's) are the basis of a new generation of binders for polymer composites: hybrid matrices [1]. A wide range of composites, which may be characterized either as mixtures of network polymers (IPN) or of network and linear polymers (semi-IPN's or pseudo-IPN's), are attributed to this class of polymer networks. This classification of IPN's was suggested by Sperling [2]. Based on the method of synthesis, the original definition given by Millar in 1966 [3] supposed a molecular level of mixing of chains between crosslinks of constituent networks and the formation of molecular entanglements between them.