CPI201T

ORGANIC CHEMICAL PROCESSES

POLYMERS

Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment

Department of Chemical, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering
Characterization of polymers

http://web.mit.edu/5.33/www/lec/poly.pdf
Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment
Department of Chemical, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering
Characterization of polymers

http://web.mit.edu/5.33/www/lec/poly.pdf

Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment

Department of Chemical, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering
Characterization of polymers
• The elastic modulus (m) is highly temperature
dependent!
• Rubber has small (m) at room temperature → ball
bounces
• At low T, (m) much larger → rubber ball in liquid N2
shatters when bounced →hard plastic
• Also, plastics heated above room temperature are less
stiff.
http://web.mit.edu/5.33/www/lec/poly.pdf

Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment

Department of Chemical, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering
Characterization of polymers

Where is room temperature on this plot? (depends on whether you have a rubber or
plastic)
The various temperatures characterize polymers.

Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment

Department of Chemical, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering
Characterization of polymers

• Glass transition temperature

is described as the
temperature at which 30–50
carbon chains start to move.
At the glass transition
temperature, the amorphous
regions experience transition
from rigid state to more
flexible state making the
temperature at the border of
the solid state to rubbery
state

https://youtu.be/5lH_Xt2KUjA
Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment
Department of Chemical, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering
Characterization of polymers
•   Molecular Weight – Molar Mass (M)
2)
i: degree of polymerization (# of monomer units)

Where Mi : molar mass of polymer molecule i

M0 : molecular weight of monomer
• Typically have distribution of masses (all chain lengths aren’t
equally long)
• monodisperse—equal chain lengths →purified proteins,
dendriners
• polydisperse—unequal lengths

Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment

Department of Chemical, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering
Characterization of polymers
Characterize the polydispersity through F(Mi): distribution of
molar masses. http://web.mit.edu/5.33/www/lec/poly.pdf

Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment

Department of Chemical, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering
Characterization of polymers
We can find several statistical ways of describing the molar mass.
Comparison of these numbers helps describe F(M).

http://web.mit.edu/5.33/www/lec/poly.pdf

Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment

Department of Chemical, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering
Characterization of polymers
http://web.mit.edu/5.33/www/lec/poly.pdf

Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment

Department of Chemical, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering
Characterization of polymers

http://web.mit.edu/5.33/www/lec/poly.pdf

Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment

Department of Chemical, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering
Characterization of polymers

http://web.mit.edu/5.33/www/lec/poly.pdf

Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment

Department of Chemical, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering
Characterization of polymers

http://web.mit.edu/5.33/www/lec/poly.pdf

Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment

Department of Chemical, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering