The development of new polymeric materials has caused a considerable expansion in the field of reactive processing. These new materials are very competitive compared to the traditional ones with respect to production costs and performance. The reports published in this volume present the recent developments and emerging trends in the field of reactive processing and the physical properties of the resulting polymeric materials. Special attention is given to the chemical, kinetic and rheological aspects of reactive processing.

Multicomponent polymeric systems, or polymeric blends, have recently created considerable interest and they represent a new and important challenge for research. These systems have already become technologically important, but the prospects for their applications have by no means been exhausted. For thermodynamic reasons polymer blends do not usually form homogeneous mixtures but exhibit micro or macrophase separation. This incompatibility has some inherent advantages as varying the composition and the processing conditions, materials with different structures and morphologies can be obtained...