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In chemistry and biology, a cross-link is a bond or a short sequence of bonds that links one polymer chain to another. These links may take the form of covalent bonds or ionic bonds and the polymers can be either synthetic polymers or natural polymers (such as proteins ).
Long chain branches may increase polymer strength, toughness, and the glass transition temperature (T g) due to an increase in the number of entanglements per chain. A random and short chain length between branches, on the other hand, may reduce polymer strength due to disruption of the chains' ability to interact with each other or crystallize.
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. Newer methods, such as plasma polymerization do not fit neatly into either category. Synthetic polymerization reactions may be carried out with or without a ...
For example, in the synthesis of PET, a small fraction of the ethylene glycol can be replaced by glycerol which has three alcohol groups. This trifunctional molecule inserts itself in the polymeric chain and bonds to three carboxylic acid groups forming a branch point. Finally, the formation of cross-linked polymers involves tetrafunctional ...
Left: individual linear polymer chains Right: Polymer chains which have been cross linked to give a rigid 3D thermoset polymer. In materials science, a thermosetting polymer, often called a thermoset, is a polymer that is obtained by irreversibly hardening ("curing") a soft solid or viscous liquid prepolymer (). [1]
The use of non-covalent interactions such as hydrogen bonding, pi-stacking or crystallization that lead to physical cross-links between polymer chains is one way of introducing dynamic cross-linking. The thermoreversible nature of the physical cross-links results in polymer materials with improved mechanical properties without losing ...
In a ladder polymer the monomers are interconnected by four bonds. Inorganic ladder polymers are found in synthetic and natural settings. Ladder polymers are a special case of cross-linked polymers because the crosslinks exist only with pairs of chains. [1] According to one definition, a ladder polymer, adjacent rings have two or more atoms in ...
In chain-growth (or chain) polymerization, the only chain-extension reaction step is the addition of a monomer to a growing chain with an active center such as a free radical, cation, or anion. Once the growth of a chain is initiated by formation of an active center, chain propagation is usually rapid by addition of a sequence of monomers.