• Threshold Molecular Weight

• Lower molecular weight polymer – Brittle and less mechanical

strength
• Very high mol. wt. Polymer – Tough and intractable cannot be
easily handled
• Polymerization proces should be controlled after certain stage
depending upon the application
• Threshold molecular weight is the minimum molecular weight
that a polymer must attain to develop the properties needed for a
particular application
• Physical properties of polymer such as tensile strength and
impact resistance are related to mol. wt and mol. wt distribution
of the polymer
 • Variation of mech. Properties with DOP
• Tensile strength and impact resistance increases with increase in
degree of polymerization upto a point after which slow increase
is there
• Melt flow viscosity initially increases slowly then rapidly after
the polymer has attained a certain degree of polymerization
• RI, colour, density, hardness and electrical properties are
independent of the molecular weight of polymer

Melt
Tensile strength viscosity
property
Impact res.

Deg. of polymerization
Most of the properties of a polymer depends on-----
--- Average molecular weight
--- Molecular weight distribution of the polymer
Two polymer samples may have same molecular weight and same
chemical structure, but they may differ in many of their properties
for example – melting point, crystallinity, flexibility, solubility, etc.
Amorphous
Ex. Polypropylene Crystalline
Crystalline
Atactic
Ziegler and Natta discovered certain organometallic catalysts.
In presence of these catalysts, highly ordered stereo-regular
polymers formed – which are isotactic and syndiotactic polymers
These have high degree of crystallinity, well defined density and
melting point