ABSTRACT
Engineering thermoplastics, such as polyamides and polycarbonates, possess superior mechanical and thermal properties, and hence are finding widespread use as structural materials in areas such as the automobile, aircraft, or electrical/electronic industries. Consequently, growing demand has led to a hike in prices of these thermoplastics. It is expected that the global revenue for engineering thermoplastics will hit 77 billion dollars by the year 2017 [1]. However, the increasing cost of engineering thermoplastics has motivated researchers both in academia and industry into focusing attention toward finding cheaper alternatives. Commodity thermoplastics (e.g., polyethylene terephthalate [PET] or polypropylene [PP]) are relatively inexpensive but have lower performance mechanical properties compared with engineering thermoplastics.
