Polymers have for very long been a fundamental piece of our everyday lives so much so that examples are available almost ubiquitously. We generally an impact which leads us to trust that polymers are simply just plastics used for packaging, in household objects as well as for making fibres, however, this is only the tip with the iceberg.
Polymers are used in many applications you do not have thought much about. This web site enlightens you regarding the story behind polymers and just how it has evolved from the time for everyone several functions across a host of industries.
Origin of polymer science
Humans have got good thing about the flexibility of polymers for centuries available as oils, tars, resins and gums. However, it wasn’t before the industrial revolution how the polymer industry started to realize. The truth is, the birth of polymer science may be traced back to the mid-nineteenth century. Inside the 1830s, Charles Goodyear developed the vulcanization process that transformed the sticky latex of natural rubber right into a useful elastomer for tire use. In 1909, Leo Hendrik Baekeland created resin from two quite typical chemicals, phenol and formaldehyde. The response between both of these chemicals paved the way to build up a resin, called Bakelite, named after him. It had been this resin that served being a harbinger to a lot of with the common polymers we use today. The term “polymer” hails from the Greek roots “poly” and “mer,” which come up with means “many parts.” Polymeric substances are composed of several chemical units called monomers, which are joined together into large molecular chains comprising thousands of atoms.
Classification of polymers
On the basis of their origin, polymer resin could be regarded as synthetic or natural polymers. Natural polymers are those polymers that occur in nature which which are isolated from plant and animal resources. Starch, cellulose, proteins, natural rubber etc. are a couple of instances of natural polymers. Though these are processed to have the product, since the basic material develops from a natural source, these polymers are called as natural polymers. Natural rubber via tree latex is essentially a polymer produced from isoprene units having a small percentage of impurities in it.
Within this context, biopolymers are also significant. There is certainly vast number of biopolymers like polysaccharides, polyesters, and polyamides. They may be naturally made by microorganisms. The genetic manipulation of microorganisms makes means for enormous risk of the biotechnological output of biopolymers with tailored properties suited to high-value medical application like tissue engineering and drug delivery.
Synthetic polymers, for their name indicates, are synthesized inside the laboratory or factory through a series of chemical reactions from low molecular weight compounds. From your functional viewpoint they can be classified into four main categories: thermoplastics, thermosets, elastomers and artificial fibres. Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) is certainly one such thermoplastic made by the polymerization with the monomer, methyl methacrylate (MMA). PMMA is frequently referred to as acrylic plastic and lends its properties into a number of consumer product applications. Being both a thermoplastic and transparent plastic, acrylic is employed extensively inside the automotive industry in trunk release handles, master cylinder, and dashboard lighting. Consumer items that possess a constituent portion of acrylic plastic include aquariums, motorcycle helmet lenses, paint, furniture, picture framing, and umbrella clamps, amongst others.
Some of the other synthetic polymers we use in us include Nylons, used in fabrics and textiles, Teflon, used in non-stick pans and Polyvinyl Chloride, used in pipes.
Being a leading manufacturer of SUMIPEX® PMMA polymer, Sumitomo Chemical is pleased to help you in understanding its properties being a synthetic polymer. To know more, reach out to us here.
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