Polystyrene polymers, energy

Displayed in Fig. 14.1 are the predicted interactional free energies for mixtures of polyacrylonitrile latex particles, of 100 nm radius, stabilized by polystyrene (polymer 2) and pol> isobutylene (polymer 3), assuming a constant segment density for both polymers (Feigin and Napper, 1978). Figure 14. la shows the... 

Generally speaking, the idea of unperturbed chain dimensions in dry polymers is based on a rather simple reasoning. If a solvent is sufficiently poor for a given macromolecule, such as cyclohexane for polystyrene, its energy of interaction with the polymeric chain at a certain temperature... 

A still more intricate pattern of potential energy may be expected if the repeat units of the polymer chain carry other substituents, such as the phenyl groups in polystyrene, but these examples establish the general method for quantitatively describing the effects of steric hindrance on rotation. 

Gun Propellents. Low sensitivity gun propeUants, often referred to as LOVA (low vulnerabUity ammunition), use RDX or HMX as the principal energy components, and desensitizing binders such as ceUulose acetate butyrate or thermoplastic elastomers (TPE) including poly acetal—polyurethane block copolymers, polystyrene—polyacrjiate copolymers, and glycidyl azide polymers (GAP) to provide the required mechanical... 

The latter equation contains constants with well-known values and can therefore be used to predict the fracture stress of most polymers. For example, the bond dissociation energy Do, is about 80 kcal/mol for a C-C bond. For polystyrene, the modulus E 2 GPa, A. 4, p = 1.2 g/cm, = 18,000, and we obtain the fracture stress, o A1 MPa, which compares well with reported values. Polycarbonate, with similar modulus but a lower M. = 2,400 is expected to have a fracture stress of about 100 MPa. In general, letting E 1 GPa, p = 1.0 g/cm, and Do — 335 kJ/mol, the tensile strength is well approximated by... 

The non-bonded interaction energy, the van-der-Waals and electrostatic part of the interaction Hamiltonian are best determined by parametrizing a molecular liquid that contains the same chemical groups as the polymers against the experimentally measured thermodynamical and dynamical data, e.g., enthalpy of vaporization, diffusion coefficient, or viscosity. The parameters can then be transferred to polymers, as was done in our case, for instance in polystyrene (from benzene) [19] or poly (vinyl alcohol) (from ethanol) [20,21]. 

An effective method of NVF chemical modification is graft copolymerization [34,35]. This reaction is initiated by free radicals of the cellulose molecule. The cellulose is treated with an aqueous solution with selected ions and is exposed to a high-energy radiation. Then, the cellulose molecule cracks and radicals are formed. Afterwards, the radical sites of the cellulose are treated with a suitable solution (compatible with the polymer matrix), for example vinyl monomer [35] acrylonitrile [34], methyl methacrylate [47], polystyrene [41]. The resulting copolymer possesses properties characteristic of both fibrous cellulose and grafted polymer. 

As an example we report in this paper the conformational energy maps of two already cited stereoregular polymers, which have been obtained very recently, syndiotactic polystyrene s-PS and syndiotactic polybutene s-PB (Fig. 4 and 5, respectively). In fact, the energy map calculated for s-PS shows... 

The yield of cross-linking depends on the microstructure of polybutadiene and purity of the polymer as well as on whether it is irradiated in air or in vacuum. The cross-link yield, G(X), has been calculated to be lowest for trans and highest for vinyl isomer [339]. The introduction of styrene into the butadiene chain leads to a greater reduction in the yield of cross-linking, than the physical blends of polybutadiene and polystyrene [340]. This is due to the intra- and probably also intermolecular energy transfer from the butadiene to the styrene constituent and to the radiation stability of the latter unit. 

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