Monomeric units, polymers

Polymers can be classified as addition polymers and condensation polymers. Addition polymers are formed by iiitermolecular reactions of the monomeric units without the elimination of atoms or groups. An example is vinyl chloride, which can be made to combine with itself to yield polyvinyl chloride ... 

Generally polymers involve bonding of the most substituted carbon of one monomeric unit to the least substituted carbon atom of the adjacent unit in a head-to-tail arrangement. Substituents appear on alternate carbon atoms. Tacticity refers to the configuration of substituents relative to the backbone axis. In an isotactic arrangement, substituents are on the same plane of the backbone axis that is, the configuration at each chiral center is identical. 

When equal amounts of solutions of poly(ethylene oxide) and poly(acryhc acid) ate mixed, a precipitate, which appears to be an association product of the two polymers, forms immediately. This association reaction is influenced by hydrogen-ion concentration. Below ca pH 4, the complex precipitates from solution. Above ca pH 12, precipitation also occurs, but probably only poly(ethylene oxide) precipitates. If solution viscosity is used as an indication of the degree of association, it appears that association becomes mote pronounced as the pH is reduced toward a lower limit of about four. The highest yield of insoluble complex usually occurs at an equimolar ratio of ether and carboxyl groups. Studies of the poly(ethylene oxide)—poly(methacryhc acid) complexes indicate a stoichiometric ratio of three monomeric units of ethylene oxide for each methacrylic acid unit. 

The most effective and widely used dispersants are low molecular weight anionic polymers. Dispersion technology has advanced to the point at which polymers are designed for specific classes of foulants or for a broad spectmm of materials. Acrylate-based polymers are widely used as dispersants. They have advanced from simple homopolymers of acryflc acid to more advanced copolymers and terpolymers. The performance characteristics of the acrylate polymers are a function of their molecular weight and stmcture, along with the types of monomeric units incorporated into the polymer backbone. 

Biopolymers are the naturally occurring macromolecular materials that are the components of all living systems. There are three principal categories of biopolymers, each of which is the topic of a separate article in the Eniyclopedia proteins (qv) nucleic acids (qv) and polysaccharides (see Carbohydrates Microbial polysaccharides). Biopolymers are formed through condensation of monomeric units ie, the corresponding monomers are amino acids (qv), nucleotides, and monosaccharides, for proteins, nucleic acids, and polysaccharides, respectively. The term biopolymers is also used to describe synthetic polymers prepared from the same or similar monomer units as are the natural molecules. 

The next major commodity plastic worth discussing is polypropylene. Polypropylene is a thermoplastic, crystalline resin. Its production technology is based on Ziegler s discovery in 1953 of metal alkyl-transition metal halide olefin polymerization catalysts. These are heterogeneous coordination systems that produce resin by stereo specific polymerization of propylene. Stereoregular polymers characteristically have monomeric units arranged in orderly periodic steric configuration. 

FIGURE 1.10 The sequence of monomeric units in a biological polymer has the potential to contain information if the diversity and order of the units are not overly simple or repetitive. Nucleic acids and proteins are information-rich molecules polysaccharides are not. 

Addition polymers are formed by the reaction of the monomeric units without the elimination of atoms. The monomer is usually an unsaturated organic compound such as ethylene, H2C=CHs, which in the presence of a suitable catalyst will undergo an addition reaction to form a long chain molecule such as polyethylene. A general equation for the first stage of such a process is... 

Finally, many biological polymerizations most probably involve templates. These array the monomeric units and the order obtained is reflected in the polymer produced. 

Bifunctional monomeric unit, 149 Bifunctional polymer, 178 Binding mechanism, 3 Bismuth-cadmium alloy (Bi5Cd5), calculation of thermodynamic quantities, 136... 

A Structural characteristic of conducting organic polymers is the conjugation of the chain-linked electroactive monomeric units, i.e. the monomers interact via a 7t-electron system. In this respect they are fundamentally different from redox polymers. Although redox polymers also contain electroactive groups, the polymer backbone is not conjugated. Consequently, and irrespective of their charge state, redox polymers are nonconductors. Their importance for electrochemistry lies mainly in their use as materials for modified el trodes. Redox polymers have been discussed in depth in the literature and will not be included in this review. 

Chain length is another factor closely related to the structural characterization of conducting polymers. The importance of this parameter lies in its considerable influence on the electric as well as the electrochemical properties of conducting polymers. However, the molecular weight techniques normally used in polymer chemistry cannot be employed on account of the extreme insolubility of the materials. A comparison between spectroscopic findings (XPS, UPS, EES) for PPy and model calculations has led some researchers to conclude that 10 is the minimum number of monomeric units in a PPy chain, with the maximum within one order of magnitude n9- 27,i28) mechanical qualities of the electropolymerized films,... 

In the same scheme, moreover, it is evident that, besides phosphazene homopolymers, the substitution of the chlorines with two (or more) different substituents leads to the preparation of substituent phosphazene copolymers [263] containing different homosubstituted and heterosubstituted monomeric units. Moreover, the cationic polymerization of phosphoranimines [215-217] produces polymers with hving reactive ends (vide supra) from which the preparation of chain phosphazene copolymers (block copolymers) [220,223,225, 229,232-235,239, 240] formed by different polymeric backbones linked together in a unique macromolecule could be obtained. 

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