Polymeric materials include materials such as plastics, rubber, adhesives, paints, foams, resins, and many other materials used in everyday life. These materials entered human life in the twentieth century and paved the way for many developments in the advancement of technology and the change of human lifestyle.
Polymeric materials are mainly produced from oil and gas derivatives; however, some polymeric materials have a biological basis, ie they are made from materials extracted from nature. Some other polymeric materials are extracted directly from nature. Natural rubber, for example, is obtained from the sap of sauerkraut trees.
Polymer is made up of the words “poly” and “mer”. Poly means multi and mer means part. In fact, polymers are substances whose molecular structure is made up of a large number of repeating components. For example, polyethylene, which is the most widely used polymer made by humans, is made of ethylene gas. Therefore, the polyathylene molecule is composed of repeating ethylene units. By attaching ethylene molecules to each other, polyathylene is obtained. Polypropylene molecules are also obtained by sticking propylene molecules together. The units that make up polymers, which are actually its marbles, are called monomers. Mono means “one” and Mer means “except”, so monomers are single-component components of polymers. Ethylene, for example, is also called ethylene monomer. The components of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) monomer are also called vinyl chloride monomers. The act of binding the molecules of monomers together and forming a polymer is called the polymerization process. In petrochemical plants that produce polymers, the polymerization process takes place, during which the polymers are made up of monomers.
Types of polymers:
Most polymers are made up of one type of monomer, but some are made up of two or more types of monomers. Polymers that are made from one type of monomer are called homopolymers, and polymers that are made from two or more types of monomers are called copolymers. In many cases, the second monomer is added to the first monomer in the polymerization process to improve the properties of the final polymer. The copolymers themselves are classified into two categories, random copolymer and block copolymer. Random copolymers are copolymers in which monomeric components are irregularly repeated along the polymer chain, but block copolymers are copolymers in which uniform monomers are placed side by side. Examples of block copolymers are polypropylene block copolymers, which are widely used in the automotive industry to produce bumpers, dashboards and other in-car trims. An example of a random copolymer is a polypropylene random copolymer, which is widely used in the manufacture of building plastic pipes.