PMMA Polymethylmethacrylate

In bonding PMMA (Plexiglas —Arkema Corp., www.plexiglas.com) to itself, solvent cementing is ordinarily used. However, when bonding PMMA to a dissimilar substrate, conventional adhesive bonding must be used. Surface treatment is as follows 

Wipe with methanol, acetone, MEK, TCE, isopropanol, or detergent 

Abrade with fine-grit (180—400 grit) sandpaper, or use abrasive scouring with small amounts of water, dry-grit blasting, or wet abrasive blasting 

Wipe with a clean, dry cloth to remove particles 

This material is now supplied by Mitsui Petrochemical Industries, Ltd. It is a copolymer of 4-methylpentene and is useful up to 204 °C. Chemical behavior is similar to that of other polyolefins. It is attacked by strong oxidizing agents. Some fight hydrocarbons and chlorinated solvents can cause 

Ordinarily solvent cementing or thermal welding is used with PMMA. These methods provide stronger joints than adhesive bonding. Adhesives used are cyanoacrylates, second-generation acrylics, and epoxies, each of which provides good adhesion but poor resistance to thermal aging.  

Acrylics are derived from esters and are produced by polymerisation of methyl methacrylates (MMA) to give a range of properties from soft elastomers to stiff thermoplastics. 

The main features of polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA), or acrylics, are their excellent clarity and UV resistance, good abrasion resistance, stiffiiess and hardness. The main drawback of acrylics is their poor solvent resistance, low continuous use temperature (approximately 50 °C) and poor fatigue resistance. 

Acrylics come in many different forms such as liquid emulsion for coatings, cast sheet, high impact and general purpose grades. 

Elastic modulus (MPa) (tensile with 0.2% water content) 2691-3278 2553-3174 1656-2553 

Cast sheet grades are used for glazing, illuminated and non-illuminated signs, street lamp housing, coach roof lights, guards for machines and food displays, baths and washbasins, and covers on solar panels. 

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Many of the most floppy polymers have half-melted in this way at room temperature. The temperature at which this happens is called the glass temperature, Tq, for the polymer. Some polymers, which have no cross-links, melt completely at temperatures above T, becoming viscous liquids. Others, containing cross-links, become leathery (like PVC) or rubbery (as polystyrene butadiene does). Some typical values for Tg are polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA, or perspex), 100°C polystyrene (PS), 90°C polyethylene (low-density form), -20°C natural rubber, -40°C. To summarise, above Tc. the polymer is leathery, rubbery or molten below, it is a true solid with a modulus of at least 2GNm . This behaviour is shown in Fig. 6.2 which also shows how the stiffness of polymers increases as the covalent cross-link density increases, towards the value for diamond (which is simply a polymer with 100% of its bonds cross-linked. Fig. 4.7). Stiff polymers, then, are possible the stiffest now available have moduli comparable with that of aluminium. 

Fig. 2 shows one application of ATR depth profiling. In this case, ATR spectra were obtained as a function of angle of incidence from a polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) film of thickness 0.5 p.m that was deposited onto a germanium hemi-cylinder [4]. The solid line represents the ATR spectrum of PMMA while the squares represent the film thickness that was recovered from the infrared spectra using four different bands. It can be observed that the recovered film thickness was very close to the measured thickness. 

Leadley and Watts used monochromaticized A1K radiation to investigate the interactions that were responsible for adhesion between polymers and substrates [24]. When polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) was adsorbed onto silicon substrates, the C(ls) spectrum shown in Fig. 21a was obtained. Originally, it was... 

Friedrich et al. also used XPS to investigate the mechanisms responsible for adhesion between evaporated metal films and polymer substrates [28]. They suggested that the products formed at the metal/polymer interface were determined by redox reactions occurring between the metal and polymer. In particular, it was shown that carbonyl groups in polymers could react with chromium. Thus, a layer of chromium that was 0.4 nm in thickness decreased the carbonyl content on the surface of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) or polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) by about 8% but decreased the carbonyl content on the surface of polycarbonate (PC) by 77%. The C(ls) and 0(ls) spectra of PC before and after evaporation of chromium onto the surface are shown in Fig. 22. Before evaporation of chromium, the C(ls) spectra consisted of two components near 284.6 eV that were assigned to carbon atoms in the benzene rings and in the methyl groups. Two additional... 

Common examples of the high Tg macromers are based on polystyrene or polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) polymers of sufficiently high molecular weight to have a high T (typically on the order of 70-100°C as measured by differential scanning calorimetry) and also to make them immiscible with the acrylic polymer backbone once the solvent or heat has been removed. Typical molecular weight of the polystyrene or PMMA macromers is on the order of 5000-10,000 Da. Their generic structure can be pictured as in Fig. 13 (shown there for polystyrene). 

Let us consider the separation of polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) on a nonmodified silica column as an example. In THE (medium polar eluent) the PMMA eludes in size exclusion mode because the dipoles of the methylmethacrylate (MMA) are masked by the dipoles of the THE. Using the nonpolar toluene as the eluent on the same column, the separation is governed by adsorption because the dipoles of the carbonyl group in the PMMA will interact with the dipoles on the surface of the stationary phase. The separation of PMMA in the critical mode of adsorption can be achieved by selecting an appropriate THF/toluene mixture as the eluent. In this case all PMMA samples... 

Interpenetrating network polymer. In a separate study, it was shown that cardanol-formaldehyde resins foiTn semi-interpenetrating networks with polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA). Although interpenetration of CF... 

Such considerations appear to be very relevant to the deformation of polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) in the glassy state. At first sight, the development of P200 with draw ratio appears to follow the pseudo-affine deformation scheme rather than the rubber network model. It is, however, not possible to reconcile this conclusion with the temperature dependence of the behaviour where the development of orientation reduces in absolute magnitude with increasing temperature of deformation. It was proposed by Raha and Bowden 25) that an alternative deformation scheme, which fits the data well, is to assume that the deformation is akin to a rubber network, where the number of cross-links systematically reduces as the draw ratio is increased. It is assumed that the reduction in the number of cross-links per unit volume N i.e. molecular entanglements is proportional to the degree of deformation. 

Some polymers like PE and NR get cross-linked on exposure to radiation while others like those based on vinylidene polymers, e.g., polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA), polyisobutylene, degrade. Certain other types of polymer stmctures (high aromatic content or thermoset) resist degradation by high-energy radiation. Coating polymers usually contain acrylic, methacryUc, or fumaric vinyl unsaturation along or attached to the backbone. 

Figure 34 Example of propagation step in chain depolymerisation mechanism (unzipping) of polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA).

Polymeric particles can be constructed from a number of different monomers or copolymer combinations. Some of the more common ones include polystyrene (traditional latex particles), poly(styrene/divinylbenzene) copolymers, poly(styrene/acrylate) copolymers, polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA), poly(hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (pHEMA), poly(vinyltoluene), poly(styrene/butadiene) copolymers, and poly(styrene/vinyltoluene) copolymers. In addition, by mixing into the polymerization reaction combinations of functional monomers, one can create reactive or functional groups on the particle surface for subsequent coupling to affinity ligands. One example of this is a poly(styrene/acrylate) copolymer particle, which creates carboxylate groups within the polymer structure, the number of which is dependent on the ratio of monomers used in the polymerization process. 

Kreuter and Speiser [77] developed a dispersion polymerization producing adjuvant nanospheres of polymethylmethacrylate) (PMMA). The monomer is dissolved in phosphate buffered saline and initiated by gamma radiation in the presence and absence of influenza virions. These systems showed enhanced adjuvant effect over aluminum hydroxide and prolonged antibody response. PMMA particles could be distinguished by TEM studies and the particle size was reported elsewhere to be 130 nm by photon correlation spectroscopy [75], The particle size could be reduced, producing monodisperse particles by inclusion of protective colloids, such as proteins or casein [40], Poly(methylmethacrylate) nanoparticles are also prepared... 

The multilayer film of the optical core produces a green reflector. The visual effects of the green reflector are not easily reproduced, yielding the easily identified security feature. Possible raw materials are polystyrene (PS), and polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA). There is a substantial difference in refractive... 

Chemical modification of polymers (J.) still remains a field of continuously increasing importance in macromolecular chemistry. In spite of its high diversification, it may be divided into 2 distinct but complementary main research lines a) the fundamental study of the chemical reactivity of macromolecular chains b) the synthesis of new homopolymers and copolymers, and the functionalization of linear or crosslinked polymers. Some of these facets have been reviewed in the last years (2-6), and the purpose of this presentation is to illustrate a number of characteristic topics both from fundamental and applied points of view, through some literature data and through our own studies on nucleophilic substitution of polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA). 

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