MCEN

2024: Materials Science

Fall 2014

Homework Assignment #4

(Due Wednesday, October 8th at the start of class)

1. Consider the following table, which provides modulus of elasticity values for several
metals at various crystallographic orientations.



Modulus of Elasticity (GPa)
Metal
[100]
[110]
[111]
Aluminum
63.7
72.6
76.1
Copper
66.7
130.3
191.1
Iron
125.0
210.5
272.7
Tungsten
384.6
384.6
384.6

(a) What property of a material does the modulus of elasticity describe?
(b) Of the metals listed above, which show an anisotropic modulus of elasticity?
Explain briefly what this means with regard to crystal structure.
(c) Tungsten appears to follow a different trend than the other metals in the table.
Look up some of the material properties of tungsten, as compared to the other
metals on the list. Can you suggest a reason why the modulus of elasticity for
tungsten does not depend on crystal direction?

2. The metal rubidium has a BCC crystal structure. If the angle of diffraction for the (321)
set of planes occurs at 27.00 (first-order reflection) when monochromatic x-radiation
having a wavelength of 0.1542 nm is used, compute (a) the interplanar spacing for this
set of planes and (b) the atomic radius for the rubidium atom.

3. For a linear, freely rotating polymer molecule, the total extended chain length L
depends on the bond length between chain atoms d, the total number of bonds in the
molecule N, and the angle between adjacent backbone chain atoms , as follows:

! $
L = NDsin # &
"2%

Furthermore, the average end-to-end distance r for a randomly coiled polymer
molecule is equal to

r = d N

A linear polytetrafluoroethylene has a number-average molecular weight of 500,000
g/mol; compute average values of L and r for this material.

4. Sketch the cis and trans structures for (a) butadiene and (b) chloropene. Use two-
dimensional schematics when answering these questions.

MCEN 2024: Materials Science

Fall 2014

5. (a) Is it possible to grind up and reuse phenolformaldehyde? Why or why not?
(b) Is it possible to grind up and reuse polypropylene? Why or why not?

6. Explain briefly why the tendency of a polymer to crystallize decreases with increasing
molecular weight.

7. For each of the following pairs of polymers, do the following: (1) State whether it is
possible to determine whether one polymer is more likely to crystallize than the other;
(2) if it is possible, note which is more likely and cite reason(s) for your choice; and (3)
if is not possible to decide, then state why.

(a) Linear and syndiotactic poly(vinyl chloride); linear and isotactic polystyrene
(b) Network phenol-formaldehyde; linear and heavily crosslinked cis-isoprene
(c) Linear polyethylene; lightly branched isotactic polypropylene