|
Polymers have been widely used for applications in our daily life and in industries for many years. In many applications, the properties of polymers
have significant advantages over those of the conventional materials, for example, in terms of light weight and durability. In fact, ‘plastic’ materials as we know are made of polymers. Rubber gloves, shoes, clothing,
and many other non-metallic materials are made of either natural or (mostly) synthetic polymers. Even proteins in biological substances are also considered as polymers, although with much more complicated chemical structures.
A polymeric material, when goes down to an atomic scale is a molecule composed of a succession of some units connected to each other to form a chain-like structure:
Diagrammatic representation of a polymer chain consists of 6 units (beads) connected to each other via 5 links in a successive manner. Beads A-D are the inner units, while beads in black are the terminal units.
|
