Synthetic Polymers

Polymers that are made up of identical monomer units are called homopolymers. Only one repeating unit is involved in the construction of the homopolymer …

Copolymers are the products obtained from the polymerization of multiple monomer species. So, in a polymer chain itself, there can be multiple repeating …

Unlike small molecules with definite molecular weights, polymers are a mixture of individual polymer chains of varying lengths, each with a unique …

For any given polymer, the weight average molecular weight (Mw) is higher than, if not equal to, the number average molecular weight (Mn). The only …

Polymers are classified as linear or branched on the basis of their chain architecture. The polymer chains in linear polymers have a long chain-like …

Unlike ionic or small covalent molecules, polymers do not form crystalline solids due to the diffusion limitations of their long-chain structures. …

Polymerization generates chiral centers along the entire backbone of a polymer chain. Accordingly, the stereochemistry of the substituent group has a …

Chain-growth or addition polymerization is successive addition reactions of monomers with a polymer chain. In radical chain-growth polymerization, the …

The radical chain-growth polymerization mechanism consists of three steps: initiation, propagation, and termination of polymerization. The polymerization …

The skeletal structure of polymers synthesized via radical polymerization is always branched. For example, the polymerization of ethylene by radical …

The polymerization process that involves carbanion as an intermediate is called anionic polymerization. It is also a type of addition or chain-growth …

The mechanism for anionic chain-growth polymerization involves initiation, propagation, and termination steps. In the initiation step, a nucleophilic …

The cationic polymerization mechanism consists of three steps: initiation, propagation, and termination. In the initiation step of the polymerization …

Ziegler–Natta polymerization is another form of addition or chain‐growth polymerization used for synthesizing linear polymers over branched …

Step-growth or condensation polymerization is a stepwise reaction of bi or multifunctional monomers to form long-chain polymers. As all the monomers are …

Step growth polymerization involves bi or multifunctional monomers. Bifunctional monomers react to form linear step growth polymers, whereas …

The introduction of polyesters has brought major development to the textile industry. The wrinkle-free behavior of polyester blends has eliminated the …

Recently, the development of olefin metathesis polymerization advanced the field of polymer synthesis. Simply put, the reorganization of substituents on …

Ring-opening metathesis polymerization or ROMP involves strained cycloalkenes as starting materials. The mechanism of ROMP proceeds by reacting …

Acyclic diene metathesis polymerization or ADMET polymerization involves cross-metathesis of terminal dienes, such as 1,8-nonadiene, to give linear …