Bleeding of an additive into an adjacent material occurs when the additive has a degree of solubility

in the polymer into which it is incorporated and also in the adjacent material, which could be liquid or
solid. Such bleeding could colour or otherwise contaminate the adjacent material. When conditions
causing bleeding are fulfilled the rates of bleeding will be covered by the laws of diffusion. It will
therefore depend on the size of the ‘holes’ in the polymer, and on the size of the diffusing molecules
and on the concentration of these molecules in the original polymer. It is not surprising to find that
bleeding is much more extensive from polymers which are above their Tg (and melting point T, if
crystalline) than from polymers below this temperature. It is also quite common practice to replace
small molecules, with a propensity to bleed, with larger molecules of similar structure in order to reduce
the effect.