POLYMER CHEMISTRY
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- Versione italiana
- Academic year
- 2016/2017
- Teacher
- MARCO SCOPONI
- Credits
- 6
- Didactic period
- Primo Semestre
- SSD
- CHIM/05
Training objectives
- The purpose of the course is to learn the specific knowledge on the polymer chemistry, the language used in the macromolecular chemistry and their representations with chemical structures of homopolymers and copolymers. The theoretical skills acquired during the course are the knowledge for i) the methodologies for the macromolecular synthesis of industrial interest with polycondensation and polyaddiction mechanisms, ii) the selection of the method for the synthesis according to the chemical-physical properties of the used monomers, iii) the choice of the methods for the molecular weight control and iv) the acquisition of the principles both of the thermal analysis and of steric exclusion chromatography applied to polymer materials to gain insight for the correlations between the properties and the structure of thermoplastic polymers and thermosets.
The course illustrates the general principles on the polymer synthesis by polycondensation polyaddiction reactions, their characterization for polyesters, polyamides, polyurethanes and the methods for the control of the polymerization degree, ii) the polyaddiction mechanisms with radical, cationic and anionic initiators and the methods for the molecular weight control with chain transfer agents of polystyrenes, polyacrylates and polyethers, iii) the copolymerization reactions with polyaddiction and ring-opening mechanisms, iv) the thermal analysis of amorphous and semicrystalline polymer materials for the determination of the thermal transitions, v) the steric exclusion chromatography and the viscometry methods for the determination of the molecular weights of macromolecules in solution. Prerequisites
- Topics covered in the course require the knowledge acquired in organic chemistry courses.
Course programme
- Concept of macromolecule and repeating unit. Definition of polyaddiction and condensation polymers. Molecular weight distributions and determination of the statistical averages. Stereoregularity in macromolecules: some examples.
polycondensation reactions: types of monomers, mechanism and degree of polymerization. Examples of polymerization reactions of polyesters, polyamides and polyurethanes. Methods to control the molecular weight. Multifunctional polycondensation reactions. Branched and cross-linked polymers. Some examples of industrial reactions.
Polyaddiction reactions: monomers, radical initiators and polymerization degree. Photo-initiated radical polymerization. Kinetics of chain transfer reactions. Ionic polymerization: mechanisms with cationic and anionic initiators. Living polymerization. The mechanisms of stereospecific polymerization of alfaolefins with the Ziegler-Natta type heterogeneous catalysts.
Reactions of copolymerization with the polyaddiction, polycondensation and for ring-opening mechanisms. Copolymerization equation. Examples.
Characterization of macromolecules in solid state: morphology of semi-crystalline and glassy polymers. Some examples for the determination of thermal transitions, the degree of crystallinity and the degree of crosslinking by differential scanning calorimeter. Characterization of macromolecules in solution with multidetectors size exclusion chromatography and viscometry. Examples. Didactic methods
- lectures on the synthesis and characterization of polymers with thermal analysis methods and size exclusion chromatography.
Learning assessment procedures
- The achieved level for learning the course objectives can be tested with an oral examination, with a max duration of 1 hour, which consists with the discussion of three main topics and of some examples and exercises proposed by the teacher during the course.
Reference texts
- -M. Guaita, F. Ciardelli, F.P. La Mantia, E. Pedemonte, Fondamenti di Scienza dei Polimeri, AIM, Pacini editore, 1998.
- S. Bruckner, G. Allegra, F. Pegoraro, F. La Mantia, Scienza e Tecnologia dei Materiali Polimerici, Edises, Napoli, 2006.
- F. Sperling, Introduction to Physical Polymer Science, Wiley, 4rd ed 2009.
-G. Odian, Principles of Polymerization, 4th Wiley, 2009.
