Polymer chain organization

Seki, T., Fukuda, K., and Ichimura, K. Photocontrol of polymer chain organization using a photochromic monolayer. Langmuir, 15, 5098 (1999). 

Despotopoulou, R.D. Miller, J.F. Rabolt, and C.W. Frank, Polymer chain organization and orientation in ultrathin films A spectroscopic investigation, J. Polym. Set Pt. B 34, 2335 (1996) C.W. Frank, Stanford University, Private Communication (2001). 

Acrylic, nylon and polyester are especially susceptible to hydrolysis and metals, such as iron and copper, catalyse this degradation. Metal impurities which are present as a result of the manufacturing process, or in a composite material, accelerate degradation. Many polymers are alkali and acid sensitive, and acid can cause the hydrolysis of polymer chains. Organic vapours and fumigants can dissolve or swell plastics. 

Polysaccharides are macromolecules which make up a large part of the bulk of the vegetable kingdom. Cellulose and starch are, respectively, the first and second most abundant organic compounds in plants. The former is present in leaves and grasses the latter in fruits, stems, and roots. Because of their abundance in nature and because of contemporary interest in renewable resources, there is a great deal of interest in these compounds. Both cellulose and starch are hydrolyzed by acids to D-glucose, the repeat unit in both polymer chains. 

The type of initiator utilized for a solution polymerization depends on several factors, including the solubiUty of the initiator, the rate of decomposition of the initiator, and the intended use of the polymeric product. The amount of initiator used may vary from a few hundredths to several percent of the monomer weight. As the amount of initiator is decreased, the molecular weight of the polymer is increased as a result of initiating fewer polymer chains per unit weight of monomer, and thus the initiator concentration is often used to control molecular weight. Organic peroxides, hydroperoxides, and azo compounds are the initiators of choice for the preparations of most acryUc solution polymers and copolymers. 

Noncrystalline domains in fibers are not stmctureless, but the stmctural organization of the polymer chains or chain segments is difficult to evaluate, just as it is difficult to evaluate the stmcture of Hquids. No direct methods are available, but various combinations of physicochemical methods such as x-ray diffraction, birefringence, density, mechanical response, and thermal behavior, have been used to deduce physical quantities that can be used to describe the stmcture of the noncrystalline domains. Among these quantities are the amorphous orientation function and the amorphous density, which can be related to some of the important physical properties of fibers. 

Suspension polymerization of VDE in water are batch processes in autoclaves designed to limit scale formation (91). Most systems operate from 30 to 100°C and are initiated with monomer-soluble organic free-radical initiators such as diisopropyl peroxydicarbonate (92—96), tert-huty peroxypivalate (97), or / fZ-amyl peroxypivalate (98). Usually water-soluble polymers, eg, cellulose derivatives or poly(vinyl alcohol), are used as suspending agents to reduce coalescence of polymer particles. Organic solvents that may act as a reaction accelerator or chain-transfer agent are often employed. The reactor product is a slurry of suspended polymer particles, usually spheres of 30—100 pm in diameter they are separated from the water phase thoroughly washed and dried. Size and internal stmcture of beads, ie, porosity, and dispersant residues affect how the resin performs in appHcations. 

The primary polymerization product ia these processes has a relatively wide molecular weight distribution, and a separate step is often used to narrow the polydispersity. Such a narrowkig step may consist of high vacuum stripping to remove volatile polymer chains, often followed by a solvent fractionation step (35,36), sometimes a solvent fractionation step alone (37,38), or a fractional precipitation from organic solvent (32). The molecular weight distribution can also be narrowed by depolymerization at elevated temperatures ia the presence of a depolymerization catalyst (217—220). 

Miscellaneous Curing Reactions. Other functional groups can react with the thiol terminal groups of the polysulfides to cross-link the polymer chains and build molecular weight. For example, aldehydes can form thioacetals and water. Organic and inorganic acids or esters can form thioesters. Active dienes such as diacrylates can add to the thiols (3). Examples of these have been mentioned in the Hterature, but none have achieved... 

An important aspect of this is the splitting of the polymer chain with thiol (eq. 5) or mercaptide ion (thiol + base catalyst). In fact, sodium sulfide or organic monothiols, eg, mercaptoethanol or decyhnercaptan, are utilized to lower the molecular weight of polysulftdes or to limit the extent of curing reactions. 

Chemical Grafting. Polymer chains which are soluble in the suspending Hquid may be grafted to the particle surface to provide steric stabilization. The most common technique is the reaction of an organic silyl chloride or an organic titanate with surface hydroxyl groups in a nonaqueous solvent. For typical interparticle potentials and a particle diameter of 10 p.m, steric stabilization can be provided by a soluble polymer layer having a thickness of - 10 nm. This can be provided by a polymer tail with a molar mass of 10 kg/mol (25) (see Dispersants). 

This compound is soluble in most organic solvents and may be easily copolymerized with other vinyl monomers to introduce reactive side groups on the polymer chain (18). Such reactive polymer chains may then be used to modify other polymers including other amino resins. It may be desirable to produce the cross-links first. Thus, A/-methylolacrylamide can react with more acrylamide to produce methylenebisacrylamide, a tetrafunctional vinyl monomer. 

Bonding Agents. These materials are generally only used in wire cable coat compounds. They are basically organic complexes of cobalt and cobalt—boron. In wire coat compounds they are used at very low levels of active cobalt to aid in the copper sulfide complex formation that is the primary adherance stmcture. The copper sulfide stmcture builds up at the brass mbber interface through copper in the brass and sulfur from the compound. The dendrites of copper sulfide formed entrap the polymer chains before the compound is vulcanized thus hoi ding the mbber firmly to the wire. 

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