Materials Science and Engineering

Polymeric Materials

Polymeric Materials deals with the subject areas of Material Science and Organic Chemistry. A polymer is a large macromolecule, composed with millions of recurrent linked units; each is relatively light and simple molecule. Due to their wide range of properties, both synthetic and natural polymers play crucial and abundant role in everyday life. Most similar classes of polymers are composed of hydrocarbons, mixtures of carbon and hydrogen. These polymers are specially made of carbon atoms bonded together into long chains that are termed as the backbone of the polymer. Due to the nature of carbon, one or more other atoms should be attached to each carbon atom in the backbone. These are the polymers that hold only carbon and hydrogen atoms. Other mutual polymers have backbones that comprise elements other than carbon. Nylons have nitrogen atoms in the replication unit backbone. Polyesters and polycarbonates comprise oxygen in the backbone. Scientists and engineers are constantly manufacturing more useful materials by deploying the molecular structure that marks the final polymer produced.

• Elastomers
• Copolymerization
• Degree of polymerization
• Photopolymerization
• Plasma polymerization
• Radiation polymerization