Good morning,
A technical question for the materials (plastics) geniuses out there:
As I understand it, plastics (i.e. organic polymers) may be
classified as either thermoplastics or thermosets, the difference being
whether they respond to heat by (thermoplastics:) reversably softening and
melting or (thermosets:) irreversably degrading.
Now it seems that individual types of plastics are classified as one
or the other of these two. E.g. ABS = thermoplastic; PMMA = thermoset.
But I've also heard that what makes a thermoset is crosslinking.
So my question is this: (a) Can any plastic be made a thermoset
by crosslinking? and (b) Can any plastic be made a thermoplastic by
preventing crosslinking?
Thanks for your help with this fairly basic question.
Best regards,
Marshall Burns
marshall@ennex.com
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