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Advantages And Disadvantages Of Using Plastics

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Normally polymers do not conduct electricity. It is the same insulating property made them attractive in many industrial applications. The vast development in the electrical field would not have been possible in the absences of plastic. One can not imagine of electrical cables without polymer insulations. Even the fitting devices like switches, holders, pin, double pole (DP) boxes etc. are all made from plastic.
In these entire applications polymer played important but supportive role and the main work of electrical conduction was done by metals. However attempts were made to impart electrical conductivity to polymer films and fibers by several different methods, with the aim of developing flexible conductive materials.
In this regard conducting plastics have been prepared by mixing metallic powders with non-conducting plastics for a long time [6, 7]. Graphite powders mixed with natural as well as artificial rubber gave conductive rubber. Similarly conducting polyvinylchlorides were prepared by adding finely powdered copper and aluminum [8]. It is also possible to prepare conductive paints or resins of these plastic by mixing it with platinum, gold, silver or graphite. Such paints can be used for electrical measurements and also for antistatic coating, electromagnetic shielding etc. Advantages of making such conductive plastic …show more content…

The further researches in this area lead to the invention of conductive polymers like polyaniline, polypyrrole, polythiophene etc. All this research work has provided the fundamental understanding of the chemistry, physics and material science and the industrial development of conducting polymer products. The impact of the field on science in general was recognized in 2000 by the awarding of the Noble Prize for Chemistry to the three discoverers of conducting polymers: Alan MacDiarmid, Alan Heeger and Hideki

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