Study on the effect of magnetic fields on polymeric materials and its application

This paper-reviews our recent work on the use of magnetic fields to the polymer processing. Polymers considered in this paper are not peculiar ones synthesized specially for the purpose of magnetic processing, but they are very usual ones including poly(ethylene terephthalate), polypropylene, etc. In this paper, two main magnetic effects on polymers are considered, i.e., alignment and levitation. In the first part, the magnetic torque causing the alignment is described. Then, examples of alignment in polymeric systems are presented, starting from simple cases such as magnetic alignment of fibers in a suspension to more complicated cases such as magnetic alignment of crystalline polymers in which mesophase formations and memory effects are involved. In the second part, the magnetic force acting on diamagnetic materials and its application to separation and processing of polymeric materials is described.