FTE2012 Tutorial 2 (Polym ers)

Pay special attention to the direction (relative stereochemistry) of the substituents in the first
three examples

Isotactic polymer Syndiotactic polymer

Addition polymerization Addition polymerization
Thermodynamic control Thermodynamic control
Semi-crystalline product Semi-crystalline product

Atactic polymer
Addition or radical polymerization (the question doesn’t
provide enough info to determine exactly which)
Kinetic control
Amorphous/glassy product

Atactic polymer

Addition or radical polymerization (the question

doesn’t provide enough info to determine exactly
which)

Kinetic control

Amorphous/glassy product

Either the cis (shown here) or the trans isomer is a valid monomer for the last question
For these questions I’m only giving the ‘ideal answer’ (the one which I would write myself)

Homopolymer

Heteropolymer

Heteropolymer

Heteropolymer
Again, the answers here reflect only the ideal answer

A longer polymer will have a higher glass transition temperature but will produce solutions of
lower viscosity than short polymers of the same material
FA LSE
Longer polymers imply more intermolecular interactions/NCIs
More NCIs means stronger attactive forces holding polymer stands together, therefore more
thermal energy is required to overcome these forces and melt the polymer (higher transition
temperature), so the first part is true, but:
The increased attractive forces holding the polymer together would also increase the viscosity
(it would be more resistant to flow)

Longer polymers with higher degrees of branching will result in low density materials with low
melting points
TRU E
High degrees of branching lead to a decrease in intermolecular interactions (due to less linear
and regular strands) and therefore will not pack together as tightly (i.e. be less dense)
The decrease in intermolecular interactions means that less thermal energy is require to separate
polymer strands and melt the polymer

Polyethylene, polypropylene, and polystyrene are all equally good polymers for long term food
storage as they each offer good barrier protection from the external environment (water, air,
microbes, etc.)
FA LSE
PE and PP offer good barrier protection, but PS is permeable to a lot of gasses and would
potentially allow water vapour in and is therefore not a good choice of polymer for long term
food storage

Briefly explain the general steps involved in plastic recycling:

1) At the recycling facility, plastics are sorted according to their recycling types/codes
2) Each type of plastic is then crushed, shredded, and homogenized to produce and even
granular mixture
3) This homogenous mix is then melted and extruded
4) The extruded strands are cut into pellets, and sent to the next facility for reuse
Define cross-linking (in terms of polymer chemistry) and give at least two examples of well-known
cross-linked polymers:

Cross-linking generally involves the addition of some small molecular species to a polymer which
can react to link polymer strands together (not end-to-end lengthening the polymer). Cross-linking
agents typically form covalent or ionic bonds, but there are non-covalent examples in nature

Examples: vulcanized rubber, double stranded DNA, agar agar, hydrogels, acetylate distarch
adipate, collagen, gelatin

Define the weight average (MW) and number average (MN) for a polymer system, then explain the
difference between the two values. Calculating both values for the following mass data may help:
50, 50, 50, 100, 5000, 20000, 20050, 20050, 20050, 20200

Mw describes a weight fraction (biased towards higher masses (due to the power 2 in formula))
Mn describe a mole fraction (a statistical average based on number of molecules)
∑𝑁𝑖 𝑀𝑖2 2,039,065,000
𝑀𝑊 = = = 19,309
∑𝑁𝑖 105,600
∑𝑁𝑖 𝑀𝑖 105,600
𝑀𝑛 = = = 10,560
∑𝑁𝑖 10

Polymer properties generally correlate to polymer length, polymer length correlates with polymer
mass. The presence of many heavy polymers in the sample will dominate the properties of the
sample (i.e. the 3x 20,050 g/mol strands will influence properties more than the 3x 50 g/mol
strands), therefore the weight average is a better descriptor when looking at averages and
properties.

Use simple sketches to show the differences between a homopolymer, an alternating copolymer,
and a block co-polymer (show at least 4 repeating units):

Homopolymer ---A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A---

Alt. copolymer ---A-B-A-B-A-B-A-B-A-B-A-B---

Block copolymer ---A-A-A-B-B-A-A-A-B-B-A-A-A-B-B-A-A-A-B-B---

You can replace A/B with anything you want, you could use different molecules, you could
use stars and circles, you could even draw cats and dogs (but it might take a while)