Ethylene glycol molecular structure

Ethylene glycol has empirical formula CH30 and molecular formula C2H602. Using the usual bonding rules (carbon is tetravalent oxygen is divalent hydrogen is monovalent), draw some of the structural formulas possible for this compound. 

Figure 25.3 b) shows a generic polyester-based polyurethane. The most common polyester repeat units are derived from the polycondensation of adipic acid and a diol, such as ethylene glycol, which results in the structure shown in Fig, 25.4. The average molecular weight of the polyester sequences between urethane links commonly ranges between 400 and 6,000 g/mol. 

Philippova and Starodubtzev have also extensively studied the complex-ation behavior of polyacids and PEG, especially, the system of crosslinked of poly(methacrylic acid) and linear poly(ethylene glycol) (Philippova and Starodubtzev, 1995 Philippova et al., 1994). They observed that decreasing the molecular weight of PEG from 6000 to 1500 resulted in its slower diffusion into the swollen network of PMAA, and a drastic decrease in both the stability and equilibrium composition of the intermacromolecular complex. Analysis of dried polymer networks of PMAA with absorbed PEG chains by FT-IR spectroscopy revealed the presence of two types of hydrogen bonded structures (1) dimers of methacrylic acid at absorption frequency of 1700 cm-1 and (2) interpolymer complexes of PMAA and PEG at 1733 cm-1. In addition, they also suggested as a result of their studies, that the hydrogen bonded dimer of PMAA forms preferentially to the intermacromolecular complex between the PMAA network and PEG chains. 

The Effect of Crosslinker Concentration on the Rate of Polymerization. Ethylene glycol dimethacrylate is used most frequently as the crosslinker for HEMA formulations useful in contact lens manufacturing. To demonstrate the effect of crosslinker concentration on the curing rate, formulations derived from HEMA/Glycerine/BME at 85/15/0.17, while varying EGDMA (from 0.34 to 0.68), the peak times were about the same (3.73 and 3.61 minutes respectively). This is reasonable due to the similarity in molecular structure of the crosslinker and the monomer, and the low amount of crosslinker used. The possible presence of other crosslinker, such as the dimerization product of HEMA, is even less a factor to be considered in polymerization kinetics, due to low concentration (normally much less than 0.1 %, in-house information). 

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