POLYMERS

 

  •  Polymers are macromolecules composed of one or more chemical units (known as monomers) that are repeated throughout the chain. Imagine, for instance, a pearl necklace: each one of the pearls would be a monomer, while the entire necklace is what is known as a polymer.

  • Although we do not see them at first sight, polymers surround us in our daily lives. 
  • For example, polyurethane is one of the most versatile polymers and is used in everything from sports equipment, shoes or swimsuits to building large engineering structures. 
  • The clothes you are wearing surely include polyesters and polyamides; and polycarbonates are more than usual in canned food.

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 A chemically recyclable biodegradable polymer for food packaging Currently polymers are very common in our lives. And it is that most of them are known as plastics and are used in sectors as diverse as automotive, medicine, construction... Another very important sector is food packaging. The most widely used packaging materials are poly(ethylene) and poly(ethylene terephthalate), due to their excellent physical properties and low cost. However, once used, they are thrown in the garbage and last for many years before being degraded, which is why they accumulate in the environment, generating a big problem.   “An alternative to this problem is the use of biodegradable polymers. Biodegradable polymers degrade through the addition of carbon dioxide, water, methane, inorganic compounds or biomass. Therefore, no waste is generated,” says Ainara Sangroniz Agudo, researcher at the UPV/EHU's Department of Polymer Science and Technology. The researcher has highlighted that "the chemica...
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TYPES OF POLYMERS

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  MAIN TYPES OF POLYMERS                                                       -Amorphous and Crystalline Polymers: If we could see the molecular chains of a polymer in a liquid state, we would see that they are completely elongated and relaxed and it is when they cool and solidify that these chains may or may not seek to accommodate themselves. The resins that when solidifying do not seek an accommodation or in other words, solidify without an order are those that are known as amorphous (from the Greek "a" without and "morphos" form). It is this disorder that defines its physical properties. Amorphous resins are mostly transparent because light beams pass through the gaps left by the chains in their disorder. Contrary to amorphous resins, crystalline resins have a good percentage of contraction, which represents certain considerations in their proc...
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POLYMERIZATION

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 The process of building polymers is polymerization and consists of the union by covalent bonds of the different monomers that comprise it. This process can be of two types: By condensation.  It results in copolymers and homopolymers, through the loss of a small molecule (of water, for example) at each monomer bond. It is also known as step polymerization. By addition.  It occurs in a three-phase process: initiation, propagation, and termination, during which homolytic cleavage occurs and monomers come together. No low molecular mass molecules are released.
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