Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
In polymer chemistry, polymerization (American English), or polymerisation (British English), is a process of reacting monomer molecules together in a chemical reaction to form polymer chains or three-dimensional networks. [1] [2] [3] There are many forms of polymerization [4] and different systems exist to categorize them. IUPAC definition for ...
Step-growth polymerization can be divided into polycondensation, in which low-molar-mass by-product is formed in every reaction step, and polyaddition. Example of chain polymerization: Radical polymerization of styrene, R. is initiating radical, P. is another polymer chain radical terminating the formed chain by radical recombination.
Synthetic polymers are ubiquitous in commercial materials and products in everyday use, such as plastics, and rubbers, and are major components of composite materials. Polymer chemistry can also be included in the broader fields of polymer science or even nanotechnology , both of which can be described as encompassing polymer physics and ...
In polymers, such as plastics, thermal degradation refers to a type of polymer degradation where damaging chemical changes take place at elevated temperatures, without the simultaneous involvement of other compounds such as oxygen.
In polymer chemistry, emulsion polymerization is a type of radical polymerization that usually starts with an emulsion incorporating water, monomers, and surfactants.The most common type of emulsion polymerization is an oil-in-water emulsion, in which droplets of monomer (the oil) are emulsified (with surfactants) in a continuous phase of water.
In the simplest example oxygen can be used as it exists naturally in its triplet state (i.e. it is a diradical). This is referred to as air inhibition and is a diffusion-controlled reaction with rates typically in the order of 10 7 –10 9 mol −1 s −1 , [ 3 ] the resulting peroxy radicals (ROO•) are less reactive towards polymerisation.
Autoacceleration of the overall rate of a free-radical polymerization system has been noted in many bulk polymerization systems. The polymerization of methyl methacrylate, for example, deviates strongly from classical mechanism behavior around 20% conversion; in this region the conversion and molecular mass of the polymer produced increases rapidly.
The first modern example of polymer science is Henri Braconnot's work in the 1830s. Henri, along with Christian Schönbein and others, developed derivatives of the natural polymer cellulose, producing new, semi-synthetic materials, such as celluloid and cellulose acetate.