Chain, polymer

This termination step stops the subsequent growth of the polymer chain. The period during which the chain length grows, i.e., before termination, is known as the active life of the polymer. Other termination steps are possible. 

Viscosity additives are aliphatic polymers of high molecular weight whose main chain is flexible. It is known that in a poor solvent, interactions between the elements making up the polymer chain are stronger than interactions between the solvent and the chain (Quivoron, 1978), to the point that the polymer chain adopts a ball of yarn configuration. The macromolecules in this configuration occupy a small volume. The viscosity of a solution being related to the volume occupied by the solute, the effect of polymers on the viscosity in a poor solvent will be small. 

Consider that at low temperatures, a lubricant is a poor solvent for polymer chains. When the temperature increases, interactions between polymer chains decrease the space occupied by the polymer ball takes on greater volume and consequently, the viscosity decrease due to the lubricant temperature increase is compensated by the unfolding of the polymer chain and the result is a reduction of the difference between the viscosities at low and high temperature, and therefore an Increase in viscosity index. 

Shearing causes polymer chains to break, therefore a decrease in molecular weight and, consequently, in thickening power. It has been shown that the higher its molecular weight, the more the polymer is sensitive to mechanical shearing (Brlant et al., 1985). 

Fig. XI-4. Schematic diagram of the structure of an adsorbed polymer chain. Segments are distributed into trains directly attached to the surface and loops and tails extending into solution.

Povodyrev et aJ [30] have applied crossover theory to the Flory equation ( section A2.5.4.1) for polymer solutions for various values of N, the number of monomer units in the polymer chain, obtaining the coexistence curve and values of the coefficient p jj-from the slope of that curve. Figure A2.5.27 shows their comparison between classical and crossover values of p j-j for A = 1, which is of course just the simple mixture. As seen in this figure, the crossover to classical behaviour is not complete until far below the critical temperature. 

As is evident from the fomi of the square gradient temi in the free energy fiinctional, equation (A3.3.52). k is like the square of the effective range of interaction. Thus, the dimensionless crossover time depends only weakly on the range of interaction as In (k). For polymer chains of length A, k A. Thus for practical purposes, the dimensionless crossover time is not very different for polymeric systems as compared to the small molecule case. On the other hand, the scaling of to is tln-ough a characteristic time which itself increases linearly with k, and one has... 

The expense is justified, however, when tackling polymer chains, where reconstruction of an entire chain is expressed as a succession of atomic moves of this kind [121]. The first atom is placed at random the second selected nearby (one bond length away), the third placed near the second, and so on. Each placement of an atom is given a greater chance of success by selecting from multiple locations, as just described. Biasing factors are calculated for the whole multi-atom move, forward and reverse, and used as before in the Metropolis prescription. For fiirther details see [122, 123. 124. 125]. A nice example of this teclmique is the study [126. 127] of the distribution of linear and branched chain alkanes in zeolites. 

Khokhlov A R and Nechaev S K 1985 Polymer chain in an array of obstacles Phys. Lett. A 112 156... 

Most properties of linear polymers are controlled by two different factors. The chemical constitution of tire monomers detennines tire interaction strengtli between tire chains, tire interactions of tire polymer witli host molecules or witli interfaces. The monomer stmcture also detennines tire possible local confonnations of tire polymer chain. This relationship between the molecular stmcture and any interaction witli surrounding molecules is similar to tliat found for low-molecular-weight compounds. The second important parameter tliat controls polymer properties is tire molecular weight. Contrary to tire situation for low-molecular-weight compounds, it plays a fimdamental role in polymer behaviour. It detennines tire slow-mode dynamics and tire viscosity of polymers in solutions and in tire melt. These properties are of utmost importance in polymer rheology and condition tlieir processability. The mechanical properties, solubility and miscibility of different polymers also depend on tlieir molecular weights. 

The second category of polymerization reactions does not involve a chain reaction and is divided into two groups poly addition and poly condensation [4]. In botli reactions, tire growth of a polymer chains proceeds by reactions between molecules of all degrees of polymerization. In polycondensations a low-molecular-weight product L is eliminated, while polyadditions occur witliout elimination ... 

Light scattering teclmiques play an important role in polymer characterization. In very dilute solution, where tire polymer chains are isolated from one anotlier, tire inverse of tire scattering function S (q) can be expressed in tire limit of vanishing scattering vector > 0 as 1121... 

Polymer chains at low concentrations in good solvents adopt more expanded confonnations tlian ideal Gaussian chains because of tire excluded-volume effects. A suitable description of expanded chains in a good solvent is provided by tire self-avoiding random walk model. Flory 1151 showed, using a mean field approximation, that tire root mean square of tire end-to-end distance of an expanded chain scales as... 

In dilute solutions, tire polymer chains are isolated from one anotlier and only interact during brief encounters. Witli increasing polymer concentration, a point is reached where tire chains start to overlap, tliis point referred to as... 

A polymer chain can be approximated by a set of balls connected by springs. The springs account for the elastic behaviour of the chain and the beads are subject to viscous forces. In the Rouse model [35], the elastic force due to a spring connecting two beads is f= bAr, where Ar is the extension of the spring and the spring constant is ii = rtRis the root-mean-square distance of two successive beads. The viscous force that acts on a bead is... 

In dilute polymer solutions, hydrodynamic interactions lead to a concerted motion of tire whole polymer chain and tire surrounding solvent. The folded chains can essentially be considered as impenneable objects whose hydrodynamic radius is / / is tire gyration radius defined as... 

Under compression or shear most polymers show qualitatively similar behaviour. However, under the application of tensile stress, two different defonnation processes after the yield point are known. Ductile polymers elongate in an irreversible process similar to flow, while brittle systems whiten due the fonnation of microvoids. These voids rapidly grow and lead to sample failure [50, 51]- The reason for these conspicuously different defonnation mechanisms are thought to be related to the local dynamics of the polymer chains and to the entanglement network density. 

Flory P J 1949 The configuration of real polymer chains J. Chem. Phys. 17 303- 10... 

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