Polymers have for long been a fundamental element of our everyday lives a case in point that examples can be found almost ubiquitously. We generally have an impact that leads us to imagine that polymers are simply just plastics useful for packaging, in household objects as well as for making fibres, but this is the tip from the iceberg.
Polymers are widely-used in many applications you may not have thought much about. This blog enlightens you regarding the story behind polymers and how it has evolved since that time for everyone several functions across a host of industries.
Origin of polymer science
Humans took advantage of the flexibility of polymers for hundreds of years by means of oils, tars, resins and gums. However, it wasn’t before the industrial revolution that the polymer industry developed. In fact, the birth of polymer science could be traced returning to the mid-nineteenth century. From the 1830s, Charles Goodyear developed the vulcanization process that transformed the sticky latex of natural rubber in a useful elastomer for tire use. In 1909, Leo Hendrik Baekeland developed a resin from two quite typical chemicals, phenol and formaldehyde. The reaction between these two chemicals paved the way for the development of a resin, called Bakelite, named after him. It had been this resin that served as being a harbinger to numerous from the common polymers we use today. The phrase “polymer” is derived from the Greek roots “poly” and “mer,” which come up with means “many parts.” Polymeric substances are made of many chemical units called monomers, which are joined together into large molecular chains composed of a huge number of atoms.
Classification of polymers
On such basis as their origin, thermoplastic resin could be considered natural or synthetic polymers. Natural polymers are those polymers that happen in nature which which are isolated from plant and animal resources. Starch, cellulose, proteins, natural rubber etc. are a few instances of natural polymers. Though they are processed to find the end result, because the basic material develops from a natural source, these polymers are referred to as natural polymers. Natural rubber coming from tree latex it’s essentially a polymer made out of isoprene units which has a small percentage of impurities in it.
In this context, biopolymers may also be significant. There is certainly vast number of biopolymers like polysaccharides, polyesters, and polyamides. They’re naturally made by microorganisms. The genetic manipulation of microorganisms makes way for enormous possibility of the biotechnological manufacture of biopolymers with tailored properties well suited for high-value medical application like tissue engineering and drug delivery.
Synthetic polymers, as his or her name indicates, are synthesized inside the laboratory or factory by way of a number of chemical reactions from low molecular weight compounds. From your functional standpoint they can be classified into four main categories: thermoplastics, thermosets, elastomers and synthetic fibres. Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) is certainly one such thermoplastic made by the polymerization from the monomer, methyl methacrylate (MMA). PMMA is frequently called acrylic plastic and lends its properties into a various consumer product applications. Being both a thermoplastic and transparent plastic, acrylic is utilized extensively inside the automotive industry in trunk release handles, master cylinder, and dashboard lighting. Consumer products that have a constituent portion of acrylic plastic include aquariums, motorcycle helmet lenses, paint, furniture, picture framing, and umbrella clamps, and the like.
A number of the other synthetic polymers we use within our everyday life include Nylons, found in fabrics and textiles, Teflon, found in non-stick pans and Polyvinyl Chloride, found in pipes.
As a leading manufacturer of SUMIPEX® PMMA polymer, Sumitomo Chemical is satisfied to help you out understand its properties as being a synthetic polymer. To find out more, get in touch with us here.
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