Polyethylene phase structure, randomly distributed

Fig. 2.1. Schematic illustration of polyethylene molecular structure of various density ranges (Elias 1992). Top LDPE, radical polymerisation yields a number of (long) side ehains. Bottom HDPE, catalytic polymerisation gives rise to linear ehains with a small number of short branches. Both drawings in the middle illustrate LLDPEs produced by catalytic polymerisation with a-olefines. Small amounts of bntene-1, hexene-1 or octene-1 co-monomers lead to etlyl, butyl or hexyl side chains. Polymerisation in the gaseous phase produces chains arranged in a block-shaped fashion and distributed at various frequencies along the chaia Solution phase polymerisation provides a statistical random distribution along the whole chain...

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