Polymer chain, single linear

Just as it is not necessary for polymer chains to be linear, it is also not necessary for all repeat units to be the same. We have already mentioned molecules like proteins where a wide variety of different repeat units are present. Among synthetic polymers, those in which a single kind of repeat unit are involved are called homopolymers, and those containing more than one kind of repeat unit are copolymers. Note that these definitions are based on the repeat unit, not the monomer. An ordinary polyester is not a copolymer, even though two different monomers, acids and alcohols, are its monomers. By contrast, copolymers result when different monomers bond together in the same way to produce a chain in which each kind of monomer retains its respective substituents in the polymer molecule. The unmodified term copolymer is generally used to designate the case where two different repeat units are involved. Where three kinds of repeat units are present, the system is called a terpolymer where there are more than three, the system is called a multicomponent copolymer. The copolymers we discuss in this book will be primarily two-component molecules. We shall discuss copolymers in Chap. 7, so the present remarks are simply for purposes of orientation. 

CMC hydrates rapidly and forms clear solutions. Viscosity buUding is the single most important property of CMC. DUute solutions of CMC exhibit stable viscosity because each polymer chain is hydrated, extended, and independent. The sodium carboxylate groups are highly hydrated, and the ceUulose molecule itself is hydrated. The ceUulose molecule is linear, and conversion of it into a polyanion (polycarboxylate) tends to keep it in an extended form by reason of coulombic repulsion. This same coulombic repulsion between the carboxylate anions prevents aggregation of the polymer chains. Solutions of CMC are either pseudoplastic or thixotropic, depending on the type. 

Most commercial polymers are substantially linear. They have a single chain of mers that forms the backbone of the molecule. Side-chains can occur and can have a major affect on physical properties. An elemental analysis of any polyolefin, (e.g., polyethylene, polypropylene, poly(l-butene), etc.) gives the same empirical formula, CH2, and it is only the nature of the side-chains that distinguishes between the polyolefins. Polypropylene has methyl side-chains on every other carbon atom along the backbone. Side-chains at random locations are called branches. Branching and other polymer structures can be deduced using analytical techniques such as NMR. 

In the usual chemical formulas written for chain polymers the sue-cessive units are projected as a co-linear sequence on the surface of the sheet of paper. This form of representation fails to convey what is perhaps the most significant structural characteristic of a long polymer chain, namely, its capacity to assume an enormous array of configurations. This configurational versatility is a consequence of the considerable degree of rotational freedom about single bonds of the chain. In the simple polymethylene chain, for example, the conventional formula... 

However, the nature of the polymeric particles is not exactly known yet whether they are linear polymers with a single chain, those with double or triple chains, or linear aggregates of fine, round Si02 beads is not known. 

For an estimate of the ultimate shear strength, r0, of a single domain based on the lattice parameters we use a simple shear plane system proposed by Frenkel [19]. As shown in Fig. 19 it consists of a linear array of periodic force centres resembling the polymer chain. According to this model the relation between the relative displacement x along the shear direction and the shear stress is given by... 

Thus we have made a single linear polymer molecule consisting of a head of the initiator unit A- and a linear chain of n linear M units. 

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