THE QUIDDITY OF POLYMERS SHAPES, SIZES, AND THEIR EFFECTS

THE QUIDDITY OF POLYMERS SHAPES, SIZES, AND THEIR EFFECTS 

It is time now to consider what form the various polymer molecules take, and how a grasp of the science has led to the development of a dazzling range of extraordinary materials. 

The difference between the two gauche forms, however, is illusory, because viewed from behind g —) turns into (-h) and vice versa (which is why they are not called gauche and droit). Where this matters is in a longer chain, because then clearly two successive g —) bonds are not equivalent to a g —) followed by a. g(+), which will leave the ends pointing in quite different directions. The anti configuration remains the most highly populated because it is the most energetically favoured. 

Consider now what this implies for a really long polyethylene chain with, say, 50,000 carbon atoms. If each successive pair of carbon atoms has a choice of three configurations, then the total number of possible chain configurations would be 3 x 3x3x3 x3, reaching S o.ooo number too monstrous to 

The method on which Staudinger (p. 11) based practically all his conclusions about the nature of polymers was the measurement of viscosity of their solutions. He clung obdurately to the erroneous view that polymers were straight, rigid rods, and that there was a simple relation between viscosity and length. In actuality, the viscosity is determined not only hy the concentration of the polymer and by its size, but also by its shape and the amount of solvent associated with it, for in 

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