Polymer Chemistry Exam 4 Flashcards
At VERY short range, what is the strongest intermolecular force?
Repulsive forces due to Pauli Exclusion
What intermolecular force do ALL long polymer chains have a lot of?
London Dispersion
For a single interaction, rank the following in terms of strength:
Hydrogen bonding
Coulombic interaction
Dipole-Dipole interactions
Strongest of the three: Coulombic
Medium: Hydrogen bonding
Weakest of the three:
Dipole-Dipole
Why don’t long polymers have a boiling point like other smaller molecules?
In order to boil a chemical, you must overcome its intramolecular interactions. The intramolecular interactions are additive, so they scale by the number of atoms present in a molecule. A polymer has so many atoms that it requires less energy to break covalent bonds than it does to overcome the intramolecular interactions. Polymers decompose before they can enter the gas phase.
What sort of temperatures is annealing done at?
Below the melting point, but above the glass transition temperature.
Irregularities in an otherwise crystalline material are called
Crystal defects
The process of removing crystal defects with thermal energy is called what?
Annealing
What does it mean to be amorphous?
Without a regular predictably repeating structure (e.g. a glass)
Why do polymers have a tough time annealing?
A single batch might have chains of many different lengths, branching, and compositions. The can never pack well if they don’t have a regular structure. Even if a polymer does have a very regular structure, to anneal it you need to give it enough energy to overcome the intramolecular forces around the defects, but not destroy existing crystals. Since polymers have very strong intramolecular forces, that is a tough ask.
In terms of chemical structure, what makes something an elastomer like rubber?
- Crosslinked.
- Above Tg but below Tm
- Stress is directly proportional to strain (via Young’s modulus) for large amounts of strain
Why might a single polymer melt at a variety of different temperatures?
A polymer crystal will melt at the temperature it was formed at. A single polymer which has the ability to crystallize can do so at any temperature between the reference Tg and Tm values. It just takes longer time to crystallize at hotter temperatures
For the formation of crystals, what is the relationship between temperature, degree of super-cooling, crystal size, and quantity of crystals, and time it takes to crystallize?
The temperature in question must be between the looked up Tm and Tg values. That said…
Hotter temperatures =
Lower degree of super cooling =
Takes longer to form crystals =
Fewer crystals form =
Crystals end up bigger
When a sample interacts with light differently depending on the orientation of the sample or light, what is that called?
Birefringence
What is it called when the molecules in the sample cannot rotate freely, but they can slide past each other?
A liquid crystal
What are thin sheets of crystals called?
Lamellae
When several thin sheets of crystals arrange themselves into round structures, what are those structures called?
Sphereulites
What equation relates the thickness of a crystal to the temperature which it melts?
The Thompson-Gibbs Equation (See end of lecture 21)
Which is more difficult for polymers: Nucleation, or crystal growth
Nucleation
A crystal defect that is an empty site in the crystal structure is called what?
A vacancy defect
A crystal defect where one atom replaces the usual atom in the crystal structure is called what?
A substitutional defect
A crystal defect where an atom is found between the usual lattice sites is called what?
An interstitial defect
When two or more atoms of opposite charges are missing from a crystal structure nearby each other, what is that called?
This pair of vacancy defects is called a Schottky Defect
When an atom moves from its usual location in a crystal lattice and ends up nearby between lattice sites, what sort of defect is this?
This pair of vacancy and interstitial defects is known as a Frenkel defect.