Polymers have for long been a fundamental element of our everyday lives so much in fact that examples are available almost ubiquitously. We are apt to have an effect leading us to think that polymers are simply just plastics employed for packaging, in household objects as well as making fibres, however is just the tip in the iceberg.
Polymers are employed in many applications you may not have thought much about. This web site enlightens you concerning the story behind polymers and how it’s got evolved ever since to serve several functions across quite a few industries.
Origin of polymer science
Humans have taken good thing about the flexibility of polymers for centuries as oils, tars, resins and gums. However, it was not prior to the industrial revolution how the polymer industry began to develop. In fact, the birth of polymer science might be traced back to the mid-nineteenth century. Within the 1830s, Charles Goodyear developed the vulcanization method that transformed the sticky latex of natural rubber into a useful elastomer for tire use. In 1909, Leo Hendrik Baekeland designed a resin from two very common chemicals, phenol and formaldehyde. The reaction between both of these chemicals paved the way for the development of a resin, called Bakelite, named after him. It was this resin that served being a harbinger to a lot of in the common polymers that we use today. The term “polymer” hails from the Greek roots “poly” and “mer,” which build means “many parts.” Polymeric substances are comprised of several chemical units called monomers, which can be joined together into large molecular chains consisting of 1000s of atoms.
Classification of polymers
Based on their origin, polymer resin can be regarded as natural or synthetic polymers. Natural polymers are those polymers that exist in nature and that which can be isolated from plant and animal resources. Starch, cellulose, proteins, natural rubber etc. are a couple of instances of natural polymers. Though they may be processed to find the result, since the basic material develops from a natural source, these polymers are called as natural polymers. Natural rubber originating from tree latex is actually a polymer created from isoprene units having a small percentage of impurities in it.
In this context, biopolymers are also significant. There’s huge variety of biopolymers like polysaccharides, polyesters, and polyamides. They are naturally made by microorganisms. The genetic manipulation of microorganisms makes means for enormous risk of the biotechnological creation of biopolymers with tailored properties suited to high-value medical application like tissue engineering and drug delivery.
Synthetic polymers, his or her name indicates, are synthesized from the laboratory or factory by having a compilation of chemical reactions from low molecular weight compounds. In the functional point of view they may be classified into four main categories: thermoplastics, thermosets, elastomers and artificial fibres. Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) is one such thermoplastic made by the polymerization in the monomer, methyl methacrylate (MMA). PMMA is usually called acrylic plastic and lends its properties with a selection of consumer product applications. Being both a thermoplastic and transparent plastic, acrylic can be used extensively from the automotive industry in trunk release handles, master cylinder, and dashboard lighting. Consumer goods that use a constituent part of acrylic plastic include aquariums, motorcycle helmet lenses, paint, furniture, picture framing, and umbrella clamps, amongst others.
A number of the other synthetic polymers that we use within our everyday life include Nylons, utilized in fabrics and textiles, Teflon, utilized in non-stick pans and Polyvinyl Chloride, utilized in pipes.
As being a leading manufacturer of SUMIPEX® PMMA polymer, Sumitomo Chemical is pleased to assist you to understand its properties being a synthetic polymer. To know more, reach out to us here.
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