HISTORY OF COMMERCIAL POLYMER ALLOYS AND BLENDS (FROM A PERSPECTIVE OF THE PATENT LITERATURE)

Polymer blends are defined as mixtures of at least two polymeric species. Thus, the first patented polymer blend was a mixture of natural rubber, NR, with gutta percha patented by Alexander Parkes, an artist of Birmingham, in 1846. The first man-made polymer, nitrocellulose, NC was prepared by Braconnot in 1833. The resin was commercialized in 1868, but its first blends (with NR) were patented three years earlier. The first patent on blends of two synthetic polymers was granted in 1928 for poly(vinylchloride) /poly(vinylacetate), PVC/ PVAc (latex blending). During the intervening 65 years, the polymer blend patent literature grew at an exponential rate; since 1983 the annual output has doubled, to exceed 3000 patents/year in 1993.