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Atactic polymers such as polystyrene (PS) are technologically very important. [citation needed] If a special catalyst [clarification needed] is used in its synthesis, it is possible to obtain the syndiotactic version of this polymer, but most industrial polystyrene produced is atactic.
The only commercially important form of polystyrene is atactic, in which the phenyl groups are randomly distributed on both sides of the polymer chain. This random positioning prevents the chains from aligning with sufficient regularity to achieve any crystallinity .
For example, atactic polypropylene is usually amorphous and transparent while syndiotactic polypropylene, which has crystallinity ~50%, is opaque. [30] Crystallinity also affects dyeing of polymers: crystalline polymers are more difficult to stain than amorphous ones because the dye molecules penetrate through amorphous regions with greater ...
Atactic polypropylene has lower density, melting point and softening temperature than the crystalline types and is tacky and rubber-like at room temperature. It is a colorless, cloudy material and can be used between −15 and +120 °C. Atactic polypropylene is used as a sealant, as an insulating material for automobiles and as an additive to ...
With a multifunctional initiator like glycerine, pentaerythritol or sorbitol the polymer branches out. Polypropylene glycol. Conventional polymerization of propylene oxide results in an atactic polymer. The isotactic polymer can be produced from optically active propylene oxide, but at a high cost.
A polymer that lacks any regular arrangement in the position of its alkyl substituents (R) is called atactic. Both isotactic and syndiotactic polypropylene are crystalline, whereas atactic polypropylene, which can also be prepared with special Ziegler–Natta catalysts, is amorphous.
Polyisoprene of latex rubber is an example of a natural polymer, and the polystyrene of styrofoam is an example of a synthetic polymer. In biological contexts, essentially all biological macromolecules —i.e., proteins (polyamides), nucleic acids (polynucleotides), and polysaccharides —are purely polymeric, or are composed in large part of ...
With the development in the 1980s of more active and stereospecific supported Z-N catalysts, the proportion of atactic polymer to crystalline isotactic polypropylene in the polymers produced was substantially reduced, to typically less than 2 or 3 wt%.