ABSTRACT
At least in principle, a very large number of rubber-plastic blends are possible (Corish and Powell, 1974; Dunn, 1976). However, in this chapter we will be concerned with those compositions, which are soft or flexible and which have rubber-like elasticity, in that they retract forcibly from large deformations. Such compositions contain larger proportions of rubber than do the impact-resistant, rubber-toughened plastics (Bucknall, 1977), which will not be considered here. Also, we shall not cover blends, which contain thermoplastic rubber block copolymers. Such blends have been reviewed by Kresge (1984) and are extensively covered in this book. Blends of vulcanizable rubber containing various amounts of resins, which can act as reinforcing or stiffening agents, also were not considered here.
