industrial polymers, major

industrial polymers, major

Introduction

      chemical compounds used in the manufacture of synthetic industrial materials.

      In the commercial production of plastics, elastomers, man-made fibres, adhesives, and surface coatings, a tremendous variety of polymers are used. There are many ways to classify these compounds. In the article industrial polymers, chemistry of, polymers are categorized according to whether they are formed through chain-growth or step-growth reactions. In plastic (thermoplastic and thermosetting resins) (plastic), polymers are divided between those that are soluble in selective solvents and can be reversibly softened by heat (thermoplastics) and those that form three-dimensional networks which are not soluble and cannot be softened by heat without decomposition (thermosets). In the article man-made fibre (fibre, man-made), fibres are classified as either made from modified natural polymers or made from entirely synthetic polymers.

      In this article, the major commercially employed polymers are divided by the composition of their “backbones,” the chains of linked repeating units that make up the macromolecules. Classified according to composition, industrial polymers are either carbon-chain polymers (also called vinyls) or heterochain polymers (also called noncarbon-chain, or nonvinyls). In carbon-chain polymers, as the name implies, the backbones are composed of linkages between carbon atoms; in heterochain polymers a number of other elements are linked together in the backbones, including oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, and silicon.

Carbon-chain polymers

Polyolefins (polyolefin) and related polymers
      By far the most important industrial polymers (for example, virtually all the commodity plastics) are polymerized olefins (olefin). Olefins are hydrocarbons (hydrocarbon) (compounds containing hydrogen [H] and carbon [C]) whose molecules contain a pair of carbon atoms linked together by a double bond. Most often derived from natural gas or from low-molecular-weight constituents of petroleum, they include ethylene, propylene, and butene (butylene).

      Olefin molecules are commonly represented by the chemical formula CH2=CHR, with R representing an atom or pendant molecular group of varying composition. As the repeating unit of a polymeric molecule, their chemical structure can be represented as:

      The composition and structure of R determines which of the huge array of possible properties will be demonstrated by the polymer.

       ethylene, commonly produced by the cracking of ethane gas, forms the basis for the largest single class of plastics, the polyethylenes. Ethylene monomer has the chemical composition CH2=CH2; as the repeating unit of polyethylene it has the following chemical structure:

  This simple structure can be produced in linear or branched forms such as those illustrated in Figures 1—> and 2—>. Branched versions are known as low-density polyethylene (LDPE) or linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE); the linear versions are known as high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE).

      In 1899 a German chemist, Hans von Pechmann, observed the formation of a white precipitate during the autodecomposition of diazomethane in ether. In 1900 this compound was identified by the German chemists Eugen Bamberger and Friedrich Tschirner as polymethylene ([CH2]n), a polymer that is virtually identical to polyethylene. In 1935 the British chemists Eric Fawcett and Reginald Gibson obtained waxy, solid PE while trying to react ethylene with benzaldehyde at high pressure. Because the product had little potential use, development was slow. As a result, the first industrial PE—actually an irregularly branched LDPE—was not produced until 1939 by Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI). It was first used during World War II as an insulator for radar cables.

      In 1930 Carl Shipp Marvel, an American chemist working as a consultant at E.I. du Pont de (DuPont Company) Nemours & Company, Inc., discovered a high-density product, but DuPont failed to recognize the potential of the material. It was left to Karl Ziegler (Ziegler, Karl) of the Kaiser Wilhelm (now Max Planck) Institute for Coal Research at Mülheim an der Ruhr, Ger., to win the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1963 for inventing linear HDPE—which Ziegler actually produced with Erhard Holzkamp in 1953, catalyzing the reaction at low pressure with an organometallic compound henceforth known as a Ziegler catalyst (Ziegler-Natta catalyst). By using different catalysts and polymerization methods, scientists subsequently produced PEs with various properties and structures. LLDPE, for example, was introduced by the Phillips Petroleum Company in 1968.

      LDPE is prepared from gaseous ethylene under very high pressures (up to 350 megapascals, or 50,000 pounds per square inch) and high temperatures (up to 350° C, or 660° F) in the presence of peroxide initiators. These processes yield a polymer structure with both long and short branches. As a result, LDPE is only partly crystalline, yielding a material of high flexibility. Its principal uses are in packaging film, trash and grocery bags, agricultural mulch, wire and cable insulation, squeeze bottles, toys, and housewares.

      Some LDPE is reacted with chlorine (Cl) or with chlorine and sulfur dioxide (SO2) in order to introduce chlorine or chlorosulfonyl groups along the polymer chains. Such modifications result in chlorinated polyethylene (CM) or chlorosulfonated polyethylene (CSM), a virtually noncrystalline and elastic material. In a process similar to vulcanization, cross-linking of the molecules can be effected through the chlorine or chlorosulfonyl groups, making the material into a rubbery solid. Because their main polymer chains are saturated, CM and CSM elastomers are highly resistant to oxidation and ozone attack, and their chlorine content gives some flame resistance and resistance to swelling by hydrocarbon oils. They are mainly used for hoses, belts, heat-resistant seals, and coated fabrics.

      LLDPE is structurally similar to LDPE. It is made by copolymerizing ethylene with 1-butene and smaller amounts of 1-hexene and 1-octene, using Ziegler-Natta or metallocene catalysts. The resulting structure has a linear backbone, but it has short, uniform branches that, like the longer branches of LDPE, prevent the polymer chains from packing closely together. The main advantages of LLDPE are that the polymerization conditions are less energy-intensive and that the polymer's properties may be altered by varying the type and amount of comonomer (monomer copolymerized with ethylene). Overall, LLDPE has similar properties to LDPE and competes for the same markets.

      HDPE is manufactured at low temperatures and pressures using Ziegler-Natta and metallocene catalysts or activated chromium oxide (known as a Phillips catalyst). The lack of branches allows the polymer chains to pack closely together, resulting in a dense, highly crystalline material of high strength and moderate stiffness. Uses include blow-molded bottles for milk and household cleaners and injection-molded pails, bottle caps, appliance housings, and toys.

      UHMWPE is made with molecular weights of 3 million to 6 million atomic units, as opposed to 500,000 atomic units for HDPE. These polymers can be spun into fibres and drawn, or stretched, into a highly crystalline state, resulting in high stiffness and a tensile strength many times that of steel. Yarns made from these fibres are woven into bulletproof vests.

      This highly crystalline thermoplastic resin is built up by the chain-growth polymerization of propylene (CH2=CHCH3), a gaseous compound obtained by the thermal cracking of ethane, propane, butane, or the naphtha fraction of petroleum. The polymer repeating unit has the following structure:

      Only the isotactic form of polypropylene is marketed in significant quantities. (In isotactic polypropylene, all the methyl [CH3] groups are arranged along the same side of the polymer chain.) It is produced at low temperatures and pressures using Ziegler-Natta catalysts.

      Polypropylene shares some of the properties of polyethylene, but it is stiffer, has a higher melting temperature, and is slightly more oxidation-sensitive. A large proportion goes into fibres, where it is a major constituent in fabrics for home furnishings such as upholstery and indoor-outdoor carpets. Numerous industrial end uses exist for polypropylene fibre as well, including rope and cordage, disposable nonwoven fabrics for diapers and medical applications, and nonwoven fabrics for ground stabilization and reinforcement in construction and road paving. However, because of its very low moisture absorption, limited dyeability, and low softening point (an important factor when ironing clothing), polypropylene is not an important apparel fibre.

      As a plastic, polypropylene is blow-molded into bottles for foods, shampoos, and other household liquids. It is also injection-molded into many products, such as appliance housings, dishwasher-proof food containers, toys, automobile battery casings, and outdoor furniture. When a thin section of molded polypropylene is flexed repeatedly, a molecular structure is formed that is capable of withstanding much additional flexing without failing. This fatigue resistance has led to the design of polypropylene boxes and other containers with self-hinged covers.

      It is generally accepted that isotactic polypropylene was discovered in 1954 by the Italian chemist Giulio Natta (Natta, Giulio) and his assistant Paolo Chini, working in association with Montecatini (now Montedison SpA) and employing catalysts of the type recently invented by Karl Ziegler for synthesizing polyethylene. (Partly in recognition of this achievement, Natta was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1963 along with Ziegler.) Commercial production of polypropylene by Hercules Incorporated, Montecatini, and the German Farbwerke Hoechst AG began in 1957. Since the early 1980s production and consumption have increased significantly, owing to the invention of more efficient catalyst systems by Montedison and the Japanese Mitsui & Co. Ltd.

      This rigid, relatively brittle thermoplastic resin is polymerized from styrene (CH2=CHC6H5). Styrene, also known as phenylethylene, is obtained by reacting ethylene with benzene in the presence of aluminum chloride to yield ethylbenzene, which is then dehydrogenated to yield clear, liquid styrene. The styrene monomer is polymerized using free-radical initiators primarily in bulk and suspension processes, although solution and emulsion methods are also employed. The structure of the polymer repeating unit can be represented as:

      The presence of the pendant phenyl (C6H5) groups is key to the properties of polystyrene. These large, ring-shaped groups prevent the polymer chains from packing into close, crystalline arrangements, so that solid polystyrene is transparent. In addition, the phenyl rings restrict rotation of the chains around the carbon-carbon bonds, thus lending the polymer its noted rigidity.

      The polymerization of styrene has been known since 1839, when the German pharmacist Eduard Simon reported its conversion into solid styrol, later renamed metastyrol. As late as 1930 little commercial use was found for the polymer because of brittleness and crazing (minute cracking), which were caused by impurities that brought about cross-linking of the polymer chains. By 1937 Robert Dreisbach and others at the Dow Chemical Company's physics laboratory purified the monomer and developed a pilot-plant process for the polymer, which by 1938 was being produced commercially.

      Foamed polystyrene is made into insulation, packaging, and food containers such as beverage cups, egg cartons, and disposable plates and trays. Solid polystyrene products include injection-molded eating utensils, audiocassette holders, and cases for packaging compact discs. Many foods are packaged in clear, vacuum-formed polystyrene trays, owing to the high gas permeability and good water-vapour transmission of the material.

      More than half of all polystyrene produced is blended with 5 to 10 percent polybutadiene to reduce brittleness and improve impact strength. This blend is marketed as high-impact polystyrene.

      Second only to PE in production and consumption, PVC is manufactured by bulk, solution, suspension, and emulsion polymerization of vinyl chloride monomer, using free-radical initiators. Vinyl chloride (CH2=CHCl) is most often obtained by reacting ethylene with oxygen and hydrogen chloride over a copper catalyst. It is a carcinogenic gas that must be handled with special protective procedures. As a polymer repeating unit, its chemical structure is:

 The repeating units take on the linear homopolymer arrangement illustrated in Figure 3A—>.

      PVC was first prepared by the German chemist Eugen Baumann in 1872, but it was not patented until 1913, when Friedrich Heinrich August Klatte used sunlight to initiate the polymerization of vinyl chloride. Commercial application of this plastic was limited by its extreme rigidity. In 1926, while trying to dehydrohalogenate PVC in a high-boiling solvent in order to obtain an unsaturated polymer that might bond rubber to metal, Waldo Lonsbury Semon, working for the B.F. Goodrich Company in the United States, serendipitously obtained what is now called plasticized PVC. The discovery of this flexible, inert product was responsible for the commercial success of the polymer. Another route to a flexible product was copolymerization: (copolymer) in 1930 the Union Carbide Corporation introduced the trademarked polymer Vinylite, a copolymer of vinyl chloride and vinyl acetate that became the standard material of long-playing phonograph records.

      Pure PVC finds application in the construction trades, where its rigidity and low flammability are useful in pipe, conduit, siding, window frames, and door frames. In combination with plasticizer (sometimes in concentrations as high as 50 percent), it is familiar to consumers as floor tile, garden hose, imitation leather upholstery, and shower curtains.

      Vinylidene chloride (chemical formula CH2=CCl2, polymer repeating unit structure −[CH2−CCl2−]) can be made directly from ethylene and chlorine or by the further chlorination of vinyl chloride with subsequent removal of hydrogen chloride by alkali treatment. It is polymerized in suspension or emulsion processes, using free-radical initiators. The outstanding property of vinylidene chloride is its low permeability to water vapour and gases—a property that makes it ideal for food packaging. Copolymers of vinylidene chloride and other monomers are also marketed. The best known is saran, a trade name for a copolymer consisting of about 87 percent vinylidene chloride and 13 percent vinyl chloride. Saran is extruded into transparent films for use as a food wrap.

      The monomer vinyl acetate (CH2=CHO2CCH3) is prepared from ethylene by reaction with oxygen and acetic acid over a palladium catalyst. It is polymerized with free-radical initiators, primarily in emulsion processes, and forms the polymer phase in water-based paints. It is also polymerized in solution to give an adhesive with a very high degree of tack (stickiness).

      Synthesis of three other industrial polymers begins with PVAc. polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), a water-soluble polymer employed in textile and paper treatment, is made by hydrolyzing PVAc. Polyvinyl butyral (PVB) and polyvinyl formal (PVF) are manufactured from PVA by reaction with butyraldehyde (CH3CH2CH2CHO) and formaldehyde (CH2O), respectively. PVB is employed as a plastic film in laminated safety glass, primarily for automobiles. PVF is used in wire insulation.

Acrylic polymers
      Acrylic is a generic term denoting derivatives of acrylic and methacrylic acid, including acrylic esters and compounds containing nitrile and amide groups. Polymers based on acrylics were discovered before many other polymers that are now widely employed. In 1880 the Swiss chemist Georg W.A. Kahlbaum prepared polymethyl acrylate, and in 1901 the German chemist Otto Röhm investigated polymers of acrylic esters in his doctoral research. A flexible acrylic ester, polymethyl acrylate, was produced commercially by Rohm & Haas AG in Germany beginning in 1927 and by the Rohm and Haas Company in the United States beginning in 1931; used in sheets for laminated safety glass, it was sold under the trademarked name Plexigum. In the early 1930s a more rigid plastic, polymethyl methacrylate (Lucite), was discovered in England by Rowland Hill and John Crawford at Imperial Chemical Industries, which gave the material the trademarked name Perspex. At the same time, Röhm attempted to produce safety glass by polymerizing methyl methacrylate between glass layers; the polymer separated from the glass as a clear plastic sheet, which Röhm gave the trademarked name Plexiglas. Both Perspex and Plexiglas were commercialized in the late 1930s. (DuPont (DuPont Company) subsequently introduced its own product under the trademark Lucite.) During the 1940s an oil-resistant acrylate elastomer—a copolymer of ethyl acrylate and 2-chloroethyl vinyl ether—was produced by Charles H. Fisher at U.S. Department of Agriculture laboratories. In 1950, after R.C. Houtz had discovered spinning solvents that could dissolve polyacrylonitrile, DuPont introduced its trademarked Orlon, the first acrylic fibre to be produced in commercial quantities.

      Acrylonitrile (CH2=CHCN), a compound obtained by reacting propylene with ammonia (NH3) and oxygen in the presence of catalysts, is polymerized to polyacrylonitrile through suspension methods using free-radical initiators. The structure of the polymer repeating unit is:

      Most of the polymer produced is employed in acrylic fibres, which are defined as fibres that contain 85 percent or more PAN. Because PAN is difficult to dissolve in organic solvents and is highly resistant to dyeing, very little fibre is produced containing PAN alone. On the other hand, a copolymer containing PAN and 2 to 7 percent of a vinyl comonomer such as vinyl acetate can be readily spun to fibres that are soft enough to allow penetration by dyestuffs. Acrylic fibres are soft and flexible, producing lightweight, lofty yarns. Such properties closely resemble those of wool, and hence the most common use of acrylics in apparel and carpets is as a wool replacement—for example, in knitwear such as sweaters and socks. Acrylics can be sold at a fraction of the cost of the natural fibre, and they offer better light resistance, mildew resistance, and resistance to attack by moths. Acrylic fibres are also used as precursors for the production of carbon and graphite fibres, as replacements for asbestos in cement, and in industrial filters and battery separators.

      Acrylics modified by halogen-containing comonomers such as vinyl chloride or vinylidene chloride are classified as modacrylics (modacrylic). (By definition, modacrylics contain more than 35 and less than 85 percent PAN.) chlorine imparts a notable flame resistance to the fibre—an advantage that makes modacrylics desirable for such products as children's sleepwear, blankets, awnings, and tents. However, they are not as widely used as the simple acrylics because of their higher cost and because they are somewhat sensitive to heat (for instance, from ironing).

      Methyl methacrylate is polymerized in bulk or suspension methods using free-radical initiators. As a polymer repeating unit, its structure is:

      The presence of the pendant methyl (CH3) groups prevents the polymer chains from packing closely in a crystalline fashion and from rotating freely around the carbon-carbon bonds. As a result, PMMA is a transparent and rigid plastic. Because it retains these properties over years of exposure to ultraviolet radiation and weather, PMMA is an ideal substitute for glass. A most successful application is in internally lighted signs for advertising and directions. PMMA is also employed in domed skylights, swimming pool enclosures, aircraft canopies, instrument panels, and luminous ceilings. For these applications the plastic is sold in the form of sheets that are machined or thermoformed, but it is also injection-molded into headlights and taillights and lighting-fixture covers.

HEMA and cyanoacrylate polymers
      Related in structure to methyl methacrylate are the monomers 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate and methyl cyanoacrylate, denoted by the chemical formulas

      respectively. Polymers of the former compound, commonly referred to by the abbreviation HEMA, soften upon absorption of water; they are used to make soft contact lenses. The latter compound, usually referred to simply as cyanoacrylate, is unusual in that it polymerizes upon exposure to atmospheric moisture to form a strong adhesive. As a consequence, cyanoacrylates are marketed as contact adhesives under such trade names as Super Glue. Because they adhere strongly to skin, they are widely employed by surgeons (for closing incisions) and by morticians (for sealing eyes and lips).

Polymethyl acrylate and polyethyl acrylate
      These materials are polymers of acrylic esters (CH2=CHCO2R), which have the following repeating unit structure:

      R may be a methyl (CH3) or ethyl (CH2CH3) group or a longer carbon chain. The polymers are generally prepared in solution- and emulsion-polymerization methods using free-radical initiators. They are employed as fibre modifiers and in adhesives and surface coatings. Acrylic ester polymers are the film-forming components of acrylic paints.

Polyacrylate elastomers
      Acrylic esters, copolymerized with small amounts (approximately 5 percent) of another monomer containing a reactive halogen, can form polymer chains that interlink at the halogen sites. These so-called polyacrylate elastomers display good heat resistance (almost as good as silicone rubbers and fluoroelastomers) and resistance to swelling by hydrocarbon oils. They are mainly used for O-rings, seals, and gaskets.

Fluorinated polymers
      PTFE was discovered serendipitously in 1938 by a DuPont chemist, Roy Plunkett, who found that a tank of gaseous tetrafluoroethylene (CF2=CF2) had polymerized to a white powder. During World War II it was applied as a corrosion-resistant coating to protect metal equipment used in the production of radioactive material. DuPont released its trademarked Teflon-coated nonstick cookware in 1960.

      PTFE is made from the gaseous monomer tetrafluoroethylene, using high-pressure suspension or solution methods in the presence of free-radical initiators. The polymer is similar in structure to polyethylene, consisting of a carbon chain with two fluorine atoms bonded to each carbon:

      The fluorine atoms surround the carbon chain like a sheath, giving a chemically inert and relatively dense product with very strong carbon-fluorine bonds. The polymer is inert to most chemicals, does not melt below 300° C (575° F), and has a very low coefficient of friction. These properties allow it to be used for bushings and bearings that require no lubricant, as liners for equipment used in the storage and transportation of strong acids and organic solvents, as electrical insulation under high-temperature conditions, and in its familiar application as a cooking surface that does not require the use of fats or oils.

      Fabrication of PTFE products is difficult because the material does not flow readily even at elevated temperatures. Compression molding of fine powders in the presence of volatile lubricants is one successful technique. In the coating of metal cooking surfaces, aqueous dispersions of fine particles are used.

Fluoroelastomers
      A number of fluorinated polymers or copolymers having elastomeric properties are produced that incorporate the monomers vinylidene fluoride (CH2=CF2), hexafluoropropylene (CF2=CFCF3), and chlorotrifluoroethylene (CF2=CFCl) in addition to tetrafluoroethylene. These elastomers have outstanding resistance to oxygen, ozone, heat, and swelling by oils, chlorinated solvents, and fuels. With service temperatures up to 250° C (480° F), they are the elastomers of choice for use in industrial and aerospace equipment subjected to severe conditions. However, they have a relatively high density, are swollen by ketones and ethers, are attacked by steam, and become glassy at temperatures not far below room temperature. Also, their low reactivity makes interlinking the polymer chains a long and complex process. Principal applications are as temperature-resistant O-rings, seals, and gaskets.

polyvinyl fluoride (PVF) and polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF)
      Polyvinyl fluoride is frequently extruded into transparent film of excellent weatherability; as such, it is laminated as a protective layer onto outdoor surfaces such as solar collectors. Polyvinylidene fluoride is made into injection-molded objects and extruded films for electrical applications. Polyvinylidene fluoride is also piezoelectric (changing its electrical charge in response to pressure and vice versa), making it useful as a sensor in some devices.

Diene polymers
      Dienes are compounds whose molecules contain two carbon-carbon double bonds separated by a single bond. The most important diene polymers—polybutadiene, polychloroprene, and polyisoprene—are elastomers that are made into vulcanized rubber products.

Polybutadiene (butadiene rubber, BR)
      Butadiene (CH2=CH−CH=CH2) is produced by the dehydrogenation of butene or butane or by the cracking of petroleum distillates. It is polymerized to polybutadiene by solution methods, using anionic or Ziegler-Natta initiators. Like the other diene polymers, polybutadiene is isomeric—it can be produced with more than one molecular structure. A common elastomeric structure is cis-1,4 polybutadiene, whose repeating unit has the following structure:

      Two other structures are the trans-1,4 and the 1,2 “side vinyl” isomers.

      Polybutadienes are made either with high cis content (95 to 97 percent) or with only 35 percent cis content along with 55 percent trans and 10 percent “side vinyl.” The properties of the two polymers are quite different. Although both display much higher resilience than other elastomers, the resilience of the mixed-isomer polymer is somewhat lower. In addition, the mixed polymer never crystallizes, so that, without reinforcing fillers such as carbon black, its products are weak and brittle. Both materials show good abrasion resistance. Much of the polybutadiene produced is blended with natural rubber (polyisoprene) or with styrene-butadiene rubber to give improved resilience and lower rolling resistance. More than half of all usage is in tires; other applications are footwear, wire and cable insulation, and conveyor belts.

Polychloroprene (chloroprene rubber, CR)
      Polychloroprene is the polymer name for the synthetic rubber known as neoprene (a proprietary trade name of DuPont that has become generic). One of the first successful synthetic elastomers, neoprene was first prepared in 1931 by Arnold Collins, a chemist in Wallace Hume Carothers' research group at DuPont, while he was investigating by-products of divinylacetylene. It is a good general-purpose rubber, but it is limited to special-properties applications because of its high cost.

      Polychloroprene is prepared by emulsion polymerization of chloroprene, or 2-chlorobutadiene,

      which is obtained by the chlorination of butadiene or isoprene. Of the several structures adopted by the chloroprene repeating unit, the most common is trans-1,4 polychloroprene, which can be represented as follows:

      This polymer tends to crystallize and harden slowly at temperatures below about 10° C (50° F). It also crystallizes on stretching, so that cured components are strong even without fillers. Because the double bond between the carbon atoms is shielded by the pendant atoms and CH2 groups, the molecular interlinking necessary for producing a cured rubber is usually effected through the chlorine atom. The presence of chlorine in the molecular structure causes this elastomer to resist swelling by hydrocarbon oils, to have greater resistance to oxidation and ozone attack, and to possess a measure of flame resistance. Principal applications are in products such as hoses, belts, springs, flexible mounts, and gaskets where resistance to oil, heat, flame, and abrasion are required.

Polyisoprene (natural rubber, NR; isoprene rubber, IR)
      Of the several isomeric forms that polyisoprene can adopt, NR consists almost exclusively of the cis-1,4 polymer, the structure of which is shown below:

      The uniqueness of NR lies in its remarkable extensibility and toughness, as evidenced by its ability to be stretched repeatedly to seven or eight times its original length. The polymer chains crystallize readily on stretching, lending greater strength, so that NR is a self-reinforcing material. In its natural state, however, NR is greatly affected by temperature: it crystallizes on cooling, taking only several hours to do so at −25° C (−13° F), and it becomes tacky and inelastic above approximately 50° C (120° F). In addition, like other diene elastomers, it is swollen and weakened by hydrocarbon oils, and it reacts with oxygen and ozone in the atmosphere, leading to rupture of the polymer molecules and softening of the material over time. These disadvantages are overcome to a great extent by the vulcanizing and compounding processes reviewed in the article elastomer (natural and synthetic rubber) (elastomer).

      IR is manufactured by solution polymerization methods, using both anionic and Ziegler-Natta catalysts. The product is at most 98 percent cis-1,4 polyisoprene, and therefore its structure is not as regular as NR. As a result, it does not crystallize as readily as the natural material, and it is not as strong or as tacky in the raw (unvulcanized) state. In all other respects, though, IR is a complete substitute for NR. For both IR and NR, the principal usage is in tires, although these elastomers are also preferred for rubber springs and mountings owing to their good fatigue resistance and high resilience. Footwear is an important application, and NR is still used in adhesives (such as rubber cement).

      Another form of polyisoprene, trans-1,4 polymer, is the dominant isomer in gutta-percha and balata, two materials that, like natural rubber, are derived from the milky exudate of certain trees. This polymer does not melt below approximately 70° C (160° F) and is partially crystalline at normal temperatures. Therefore, unlike natural rubber, gutta-percha and balata are tough, hard, and leathery—properties that led to their traditional use in sheathings for underwater cables and golf balls. The trans polymer can also be synthesized with Ziegler-Natta catalysts, yielding a synthetic balata that is also employed in golf ball covers.

Vinyl copolymers
      In addition to the copolymers mentioned in previous sections (e.g., fluoroelastomers, modacrylics), a number of important vinyl (carbon-chain) copolymers are manufactured. These include most of the important synthetic elastomers not described in Diene polymers, along with several specialty plastics and thermoplastic elastomers. These copolymers are described in this section.

Acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS)
      ABS is a graft copolymer made by dissolving styrene-butadiene copolymer in a mixture of acrylonitrile and styrene monomers, then polymerizing the monomers with free-radical initiators in an emulsion process. Grafting of acrylonitrile and styrene onto the copolymer chains occurs by chain-transfer reactions. ABS was patented in 1948 and introduced to commercial markets by the Borg-Warner Corporation in 1954.

      ABS is a tough, heat-resistant thermoplastic. The three structural units provide a balance of properties, the butadiene groups (predominantly trans-1,4) imparting good impact strength, the acrylonitrile affording heat resistance, and the styrene units giving rigidity. ABS is widely used for appliance and telephone housings, luggage, sporting helmets, pipe fittings, and automotive parts.

Styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR)
      SBR is a product of synthetic rubber research that took place in Europe and the United States under the impetus of natural rubber shortages during World Wars I and II. By 1929 German chemists at I.G. Farbenindustrie AG developed a series of synthetic elastomers by copolymerization of two compounds in the presence of a catalyst. This series was called Buna, after butadiene, one of the copolymers, and sodium (natrium), the polymerization catalyst. During World War II the United States, cut off from its East Asian supplies of natural rubber, developed a number of synthetics, including a copolymer of butadiene and styrene. This general-purpose rubber, which had been called Buna S by the German chemists Eduard Tschunkur and Walter Bock, who had patented it in 1933, was given the wartime designation GR-S (Government Rubber-Styrene) by the Americans, who improved upon its production. Now known as SBR, this copolymer has become the most important synthetic rubber, representing about one-half of total world production.

 A mixture of approximately 75 percent butadiene and 25 percent styrene, SBR is polymerized either in an emulsion process in the presence of free-radical initiators or in a solution process under anionic conditions. The styrene and butadiene repeating units are arranged in a random manner along the polymer chain, as shown schematically in Figure 3B—>. In the emulsion product, most of the butadiene units are trans-1,4 polymer, with approximately 15 percent being cis-1,4 and another 15 percent being 1,2 polymer. The solution product contains more cis-1,4 units and is somewhat purer because it contains no emulsifying residue; in addition, the molecular weight distribution is narrower, and the strength of the cured product is greater.

      SBR is weak and unusable without reinforcement by carbon black, but with carbon black it is strong and abrasion-resistant. Like natural rubber, it is swollen and weakened by hydrocarbon oils and attacked by atmospheric oxygen and ozone. In SBR, however, the main effect of oxidation is increased interlinking of the polymer chains, so that the rubber tends to harden with age instead of softening.

      Because of its excellent abrasion resistance, SBR is widely used in automobile and truck tires, more so than any other synthetic rubber. A large amount of SBR is produced in latex form as a rubbery adhesive for use in applications such as carpet backing. Other applications are in belting, flooring, wire and cable insulation, and footwear.

Styrene-acrylonitrile (SAN)
      Styrene and acrylonitrile, in a ratio of approximately 70 to 30, are copolymerized under emulsion, bulk, or solution conditions using free-radical initiators. The copolymer is a rigid, transparent plastic that displays better resistance to heat and solvents than does polystyrene alone. Much of the SAN produced is blended with ABS. Principal uses are in automotive parts, battery cases, kitchenware, appliances, furniture, and medical supplies.

Nitrile rubber (nitrile-butadiene rubber, NBR)
      Like SBR, nitrile rubber is a product of synthetic rubber research during and between the two world wars. Buna N, a group of acrylonitrile-butadiene copolymers, was patented in the United States in 1934 by IG Farben chemists Erich Konrad and Eduard Tschunkur. Produced in the United States during World War II as GR-N (Government Rubber-Nitrile), it has become valued for its outstanding resistance to oil.

      NBR is prepared in emulsion processes using free-radical initiators. The amount of acrylonitrile present in the copolymer varies from 15 to 50 percent. With increasing acrylonitrile content the rubber shows higher strength, greater resistance to swelling by hydrocarbon oils, and lower permeability to gases—although the glass transition temperature is also raised, with the result that the rubber is less flexible at lower temperatures. The main uses of NBR are in fuel hoses, gaskets, rollers, and other products in which oil resistance is required. It is also employed in textiles, where its application to woven and nonwoven fabrics improves the finish and waterproofing properties.

      A hydrogenated version, abbreviated as HNBR, is also highly resistant to thermal and oxidative deterioration and remains flexible at lower temperatures.

Butyl rubber (isobutylene-isoprene rubber, IIR)
      Butyl rubber is a copolymer of isobutylene and isoprene that was first produced by William Sparks and Robert Thomas at the Standard Oil Company (New Jersey) (now Exxon Corporation) in 1937. Earlier attempts to produce synthetic rubbers had involved the polymerization of dienes such as isoprene and butadiene, but Sparks and Thomas defied convention by using other starting materials. They copolymerized isobutylene, an olefin (that is, a hydrocarbon containing only one double bond in each molecule), with small amounts—e.g., less than 2 percent—of isoprene. As a diene, isoprene provided the extra double bond required to cross-link the otherwise inert polymer chains, which were essentially polyisobutylene. Before experimental difficulties were resolved, butyl rubber was called “futile butyl,” but with improvements it enjoyed wide acceptance for its low permeability to gases and its excellent resistance to oxygen and ozone at normal temperatures. During World War II the copolymer was called GR-I, for Government Rubber-Isobutylene.

      IIR is produced by copolymerizing isobutylene in solution with low concentrations (1.5 to 4.5 percent) of isoprene. Both isoprene and isobutylene are usually obtained by the thermal cracking of natural gas or the lighter fractions of petroleum. The polymer repeating units have the following structures:

      Because the base polymer, polyisobutylene, is stereoregular (that is, with its pendant groups arranged in a regular order along the polymer chains), and because the chains crystallize rapidly on stretching, IIR containing only a small amount of isoprene is strong like natural rubber and polychloroprene—even without carbon-black reinforcement. Butyl rubber shows an unusually low rate of molecular motion well above the glass transition temperature, probably because of restricted flexibility of the molecules. This lack of motion is reflected in the copolymer's unusually low permeability to gases as well as its outstanding resistance to attack by ozone. IIR is relatively resistant to oxidation because there are few unsaturated groups per molecule.

      Because of its excellent air retention, butyl rubber quickly replaced natural rubber as the preferred material for inner tubes in all but the largest sizes. It also plays an important part in the inner liners of tubeless tires. (All-butyl tires have not proved successful because of poor tread durability.) It is also used for many other automobile components, such as window strips, because of its resistance to oxidation. Its resistance to heat allows its application in tire manufacture, where butyl rubber forms the bladders that retain the steam or hot water used to vulcanize tires.

       bromine or chlorine can be added to the small isoprene fraction of IIR to make BIIR and CIIR (known as halobutyls). The properties of these polymers are similar to those of IIR, but they can be cured more rapidly and with different and smaller amounts of curative agents. As a result, BIIR and CIIR can be cocured more readily in contact with other elastomers making up a rubber product.

Styrene-butadiene and styrene-isoprene block copolymers
      These “triblock” copolymers, also known as styrene-butadiene-styrene (SBS) and styrene-isoprene-styrene (SIS) rubber, consist of polystyrene sequences (or blocks) at each end of the chain and a butadiene or isoprene sequence in the centre. Polystyrene end-blocks of adjacent chains collect together in small “domains,” so that clusters of polystyrene are distributed through a network of butadiene or isoprene. Such a structure makes SBS and SIS into thermoplastic elastomers, blends that exhibit the elasticity and resilience of polybutadiene or polyisoprene along with the permanence of the fixed ends. (Thermoplastic elastomers are described in the article elastomer [natural and synthetic rubber] (elastomer).) Like all thermoplastic elastomers, SBS and SIS are less resilient than permanently interlinked molecular solids, and they do not recover as efficiently from deformation. Also, they soften and flow as the glass transition temperature of polystyrene (about 100° C, or 212° F) is approached, and they are completely dissolved (and not merely softened) by suitable liquids. Nevertheless, SBS and SIS are easily processed and reprocessed, owing to the thermoplastic properties of polystyrene, and they are remarkably strong at room temperature. They are frequently used for injection-molded parts, as hot-melt adhesives (especially in shoes), and as an additive to improve the properties of bitumen.

Ethylene-propylene copolymers
      There are two major types of ethylene-propylene copolymers with elastomeric properties: those made with the two monomers alone and those made with small amounts (approximately 5 percent) of a diene—usually ethylidene norbornene or 1,4-hexadiene. Both copolymers are prepared in solution using Ziegler-Natta catalysts. The former are known as EPM (ethylene-propylene monomer) and the latter as EPDM (ethylene-propylene-diene monomer). The copolymers contain approximately 60 percent by weight ethylene. A pronounced advantage of EPDM is that the residual carbon-carbon double bond (i.e., the double bond that remains after polymerization) is attached to the polymer chain rather than being made part of it. Carbon-carbon double bonds are quite reactive. For example, ozone in the atmosphere adds quickly to a double bond to form an unstable product that spontaneously decomposes. Regular diene polymers, such as natural rubber or styrene-butadiene rubber, have many double bonds in the main chain, so that, when one double bond is attacked, the entire molecule is broken. EPDM, with the double bonds located in the side groups, is much less susceptible to degradation by weathering and sunlight, because any breaking of the double bonds by ozonolysis, thermal deterioration, or oxidation leaves the main chains intact. In addition, some crystallinity appears to be induced by stretching, so that even without fillers vulcanized ethylene-propylene copolymers are quite strong. However, like other hydrocarbon elastomers, the ethylene-propylene copolymers are swollen and weakened by hydrocarbon oils.

      The principal uses of EPM are in automobile parts and as an impact modifier for polypropylene. EPDM is employed in flexible seals for automobiles, wire and cable insulation, weather stripping, tire sidewalls, hoses, and roofing film.

      EPDM is also mixed with polypropylene to make a thermoplastic elastomer. These polymer blends, which usually contain 30 to 40 mole percent polypropylene, are rubbery solids, though they are not nearly as springy and elastic as covalently interlinked elastomers. However, owing to the thermoplastic properties of polypropylene, they can be processed and reprocessed, and they are resistant to oxidation, ozone attack, and weathering. They are therefore used in such low-severity applications as shoes, flexible covers, and sealing strips. The trademarked product Santoprene, produced by Advanced Elastomer Systems, L.P., is an example.

      Some block copolymers of ethylene and propylene, called polyallomers, are marketed. Unlike EPM and EPDM, which have a relatively amorphous morphology, the polyallomers are crystalline and exhibit properties of high-impact plastics.

Styrene-maleic (styrene) anhydride copolymer
 Styrene and maleic anhydride can be copolymerized in a bulk process using free-radical initiators to yield an alternating-block copolymer, as is illustrated schematically in Figure 3C—>. The copolymer repeating unit can be represented as:

      In practice, most of the copolymers contain about 5 to 20 percent maleic anhydride, depending on the application, and some grades also contain small amounts of butadiene as a comonomer. The plastic is used in automobile parts, small appliances, and food-service trays.

Heterochain polymers
      A wide variety of heterochain polymers—that is, polymers in which the backbone contains elements such as oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, or silicon in addition to carbon—are in commercial use. Many of these compounds are complex in structure. In this section the major heterochain polymer families are presented in alphabetic order, with important representatives of each family described in turn.

Aldehyde condensation polymers
      Aldehyde condensation polymers are compounds produced by the reaction of formaldehyde with phenol, urea, or melamine. The reaction is usually accompanied by the release of water and other by-products. The monomers have the following structures:

      The polymerization reactions of these monomers produce complex, thermosetting network polymers with the following general structures (in which CH2 groups connected to the units are provided by the formaldehyde):

 The network structure of phenol-formaldehyde resin is also illustrated in Figure 4—>.

Phenol formaldehyde
      Many people date the beginning of the modern plastics industry to 1907, when Leo Hendrik Baekeland (Baekeland, Leo Hendrik), a Belgian-born American chemist, applied for a patent on a phenol-formaldehyde thermoset that eventually became known by the trademarked name Bakelite. Also known as phenolic resins, phenol-formaldehyde polymers were the first completely synthetic polymers to be commercialized. Although molded products no longer represent their most important application, through their use as adhesives they still represent almost half of the total production of thermosetting polymers.

      Experiments with phenolic resins actually predated Baekeland's work. In 1872 the German chemist Adolf von Baeyer condensed trifunctional phenol and difunctional formaldehyde, and in subsequent decades Baeyer's student Werner Kleeberg and other chemists investigated the products, but they failed to pursue the reaction because they were unable to crystallize and characterize the amorphous resinous products. It was Baekeland who, in 1907, succeeded in controlling the condensation reaction to produce the first synthetic resin. Baekeland was able to stop the reaction while the resin was still in a fusible, soluble state (the A stage), in which it could be dissolved in solvents and mixed with fillers and reinforcements that would make it into a usable plastic. The resin, at this stage called a resole, was then brought to the B stage, where, though almost infusible and insoluble, it could still be softened by heat to final shape in the mold. Its completely cured, thermoset stage was the C stage. In 1911 Baekeland's General Bakelite Company began operations in Perth Amboy, N.J., U.S., and soon afterward many companies were using Bakelite plastic products. In a plastics market virtually monopolized by celluloid, a highly flammable material that dissolved readily and softened with heat, Bakelite found ready acceptance because it could be made insoluble and infusible. Moreover, the thermosetting product would tolerate considerable amounts of inert ingredients and therefore could be modified through the incorporation of various fillers, such as wood flour, cotton flock, asbestos, and chopped fabric. Because of its excellent insulating properties, the resin was made into sockets, knobs, and dials for radios and was used in the electrical systems of automobiles.

      Two methods are used to make phenol-formaldehyde polymers. In one, an excess of formaldehyde is reacted with phenol in the presence of a base catalyst in water solution to yield the resole, which is a low-molecular-weight prepolymer with CH2OH groups attached to the phenol rings. On heating, the resole condenses further, with loss of water and formaldehyde, to yield thermosetting network polymers. The other method involves reacting formaldehyde with an excess of phenol using an acid catalyst to produce prepolymers called novolacs. Novolacs resemble the polymer except that they are of much lower molecular weight and are still thermoplastic. Curing to network polymer is accomplished by the addition of more formaldehyde or, more commonly, of compounds that decompose to formaldehyde on heating.

      Phenol-formaldehyde polymers make excellent wood adhesives for plywood and particleboard because they form chemical bonds with the phenollike lignin component of wood. Wood adhesives, in fact, represent the largest market for these polymers. The polymers are dark in colour as a result of side reactions during polymerization. Because their colour frequently stains the wood, they are not suitable for interior decorative paneling. They are the adhesive of choice for exterior plywood, however, owing to their good moisture resistance.

      Phenolic resins, invariably reinforced with fibres or flakes, are also molded into heat-resistant objects such as electrical connectors and appliance handles.

Urea-formaldehyde (urea–formaldehyde resin) polymers
      Resins made from urea-formaldehyde polymers began commercial use in adhesives and binders in the 1920s. They are processed in much the same way as are resoles (i.e., using excess formaldehyde). Like phenolics, the polymers are used as wood adhesives, but, because they are lighter in colour, they are more suitable for interior plywood and decorative paneling. They are less durable, however, and do not have sufficient weather resistance to be used in exterior applications.

      Urea-formaldehyde polymers are also used to treat textile fibres in order to improve wrinkle and shrink resistance, and they are blended with alkyd paints in order to improve the surface hardness of the coating.

Melamine-formaldehyde (melamine) polymers
      These compounds are similar to urea-formaldehyde resins in their processing and applications. In addition, their greater hardness and water resistance makes them suitable for decorative dinnerware and for fabrication into the tabletop and countertop product developed by the Formica Corporation and sold under the trademarked name Formica.

      Melamine-based polymers have also been extensively employed as cross-linking agents in baked surface-coating systems. As such, they have had many industrial applications—for instance, in automobile topcoats and in finishes for appliances and metal furniture. However, their use in coatings is decreasing because of restrictions on the emission of formaldehyde, a major component of these coatings.

Cellulosics
       cellulose (C6H7O2[OH]3) is a naturally occurring polymer made up of repeating glucose units. In its natural state (known as native cellulose), it has long been harvested as a commercial fibre—as in cotton, flax, hemp, kapok, sisal, jute, and ramie. Wood, which consists of cellulose in combination with a complex network polymer called lignin, is a common building material. Paper is also manufactured from native cellulose. Although it is a linear polymer, cellulose is thermosetting; that is, it forms permanent, bonded structures that cannot be loosened by heat or solvents without causing chemical decomposition. Its thermosetting behaviour arises from strong dipolar attractions that exist between cellulose molecules, imparting properties similar to those of interlinked network polymers.

      In the 19th century, methods were developed to separate wood cellulose from lignin chemically and then to regenerate the cellulose back to its original composition for use as both a fibre (rayon) and a plastic (cellophane). Ester and ether derivatives of cellulose were also developed and used as fibres and plastics. The most important compounds were cellulose nitrate (nitrocellulose, made into celluloid) and cellulose acetate (formerly known as acetate rayon but now known simply as acetate). Both of these chemical derivatives were based on the cellulose structure

      with X being NO2 in the case of the nitrate and COCH3 in the case of the acetate.

      Rayon is a generic term, coined in 1924, for artificial textile material composed of reconstituted, regenerated, and purified cellulose derived from plant sources. Developed in the late 19th century as a substitute for silk, this first semi-synthetic fibre is sometimes misnamed “artificial silk.”

      The first practical steps toward producing a synthetic fibre were represented by attempts to work with the highly flammable nitrocellulose, produced by treating cotton cellulose with nitric acid (see below Cellulose nitrate (industrial polymers, major)). In 1884 and 1885 in London, Joseph Wilson Swan exhibited fibres made of nitrocellulose that had been treated with chemicals in order to change the material back to nonflammable cellulose. Swan did not follow up the demonstrations of his invention, so that the development of rayon as a practical fibre really began in France, with the work of Louis-Marie-Hilaire Bernigaud, comte de Chardonnet (Chardonnet, Hilaire Bernigaud, comte de), who is frequently called the father of the rayon industry. In 1889 Chardonnet exhibited fibres made by squeezing a nitrocellulose solution through spinnerettes, hardening the emerging jets in warm air, and then reconverting them to cellulose by chemical treatment. Manufacture of Chardonnet silk, later known as rayon, the first commercially produced man-made fibre, began in 1891 at a factory in Besançon.

      Although Chardonnet's process was simple and involved a minimum of waste, it was slow, expensive, and potentially dangerous. In 1890 another French chemist, Louis-Henri Despeissis, patented a process for making fibres from cuprammonium rayon. This material was based on the Swiss chemist Matthias Eduard Schweizer's discovery in 1857 that cellulose could be dissolved in a solution of copper salts and ammonia and, after extrusion, be regenerated in a coagulating bath. In 1908 the German textile firm J.-P. Bemberg began to produce cuprammonium rayon as Bemberg (trademark) silk.

      A third type of cellulose—and the most popular type in use today—was produced in 1891 from a syrupy yellow liquid that three British chemists, Charles Cross, Edward Bevan, and Clayton Beadle, discovered by the dissolution of cellulose xanthate in dilute sodium hyroxide. By 1905 Courtaulds Ltd., the British silk firm, was producing this fibre, which became known as viscose rayon (or simply viscose). In 1911 the American Viscose Corporation began production in the United States.

      Modern manufacture of viscose rayon has not changed in its essentials. Purified cellulose is first treated with caustic soda (sodium hydroxide). After the alkali cellulose has aged, carbon disulfide is added to form cellulose xanthate, which is dissolved in sodium hydroxide. This viscous solution (viscose) is forced through spinnerettes. Emerging from the holes, the jets enter a coagulating bath of acids and salts, in which they are reconverted to cellulose and coagulated to form a solid filament. The filament may be manipulated and modified during the manufacturing process to control lustre, strength, elongation, filament size, and cross section as demanded.

      Rayon fibre remains an important fibre, although production has declined in industrial countries because of environmental concerns connected with the release of carbon disulfide into the air and salt by-products into streams. It has many properties similar to cotton and can also be made to resemble silk. In apparel, it is used alone or in blends with other fibres in applications where cotton is normally used. High-strength rayon, produced by drawing (stretching) the filaments during manufacture to induce crystallization of the cellulose polymers, is made into tire cord for use in automobile tires. Rayon is also blended with wood pulp in paper making.

      The 19th-century development that allowed for the nitration of cellulose fibres obtained from cotton linters may constitute the advent of plastics. In 1832 Henri Braconnot, a chemist at Nancy, Fr., prepared a “xyloidine” by treating starch, sawdust, and cotton with nitric acid. He found that this material was soluble in wood vinegar and attempted to make coatings, films, and shaped articles from it. Somewhat later, in 1846, the German chemist Christian Friedrich Schönbein (Schönbein, Christian Friedrich) accidently treated cotton with a mixture of nitric and sulfuric acids and obtained cellulose nitrate, which soon became commonly known as nitrocellulose. Schönbein found that he could dissolve the nitrocellulose in a mixture of ether and ethyl alcohol. Although the cellulose molecules retained their threadlike shape in solution, making it possible to spin them into fibres, their extreme flammability made them unacceptable for the textile industry (although in highly nitrated form they found immediate use as guncotton, the base of smokeless gunpowders). In subsequent decades methods were devised to spin nitrocellulose into fibres and then convert them back into inflammable cellulose; these culminated in 1891 with the introduction of Chardonnet silk, the first commercially produced artificial fibre (see above Rayon (industrial polymers, major)).

      In 1861 the British inventor Alexander Parkes (Parkes, Alexander) patented Parkesine, a plastic made from a liquid solution of nitrocellulose in wood naphtha, and in 1867 Parkes's coworker Daniel Spill produced Xylonite, a mixture of nitrocellulose, camphor, and castor oil. In the United States John W. Hyatt produced the first commercially successful plastic in the late 1860s by mixing solid cellulose nitrate and camphor. The solid solution could be heated until soft and then molded into shapes. Marketing this tough, flexible material, called celluloid, as a substitute for ivory, tortoiseshell, and horn, Hyatt's Celluloid Manufacturing Company made it into a variety of products, including combs, piano keys, and knife handles. Beginning in the 1880s, celluloid acquired one of its most prominent uses in detachable collars and cuffs for men's clothing, and the development of superior solvents allowed the material to be made into flexible film for photography. In the early 20th century celluloid found new applications as side windows for motorcars and as film for motion pictures, and after World War I nitrocellulose was employed in paints for the booming auto industry.

      In the 1920s and '30s celluloid began to be replaced in most of its applications by less flammable and more versatile materials such as cellulose acetate, Bakelite, and the new vinyl polymers. By the end of the 20th century the only unique application of note for cellulose nitrate was in table tennis balls. It also continued to be used as a film-forming polymer in some solvent-based clear coatings and paints and in fingernail polishes.

      The deficiencies inherent in cellulose nitrate raised the possibility of producing other esters of cellulose, particularly the esters of organic acids. In 1865 Paul Schützenberger and Laurent Naudin of the Collège de France in Paris discovered the acetylation of cellulose by acetic anhydride, and in 1894 Cross and Bevan, working in England, patented a process for preparing a chloroform-soluble cellulose triacetate. An important commercial contribution was made by the British chemist George Miles in 1903–05 with the discovery that, when the highly acetylated cellulose was subjected to hydrolysis, it became transformed to a less highly acetylated compound (cellulose diacetate) that was soluble in cheap organic solvents such as acetone.

      The full exploitation on a commercial scale of the acetone-soluble material was accomplished by two Swiss brothers, Henri and Camille Dreyfus, who during World War I built a factory in England for the production of cellulose diacetate to be used as a nonflammable “dope” for coating fabric airplane wings. After the war, with no further demand for acetate dope, the Dreyfus brothers turned to the production of diacetate fibres, and in 1921 they began commercial manufacture of the product trademarked as Celanese. In 1929 DuPont began production of acetate fibre in the United States. Acetate fabrics found wide favour for their softness, graceful drape, wrinkle resistance, and resistance to staining. In 1950 Courtaulds Ltd. began to develop triacetate fibres, which were subsequently produced in Britain under the trademark Tricel and in the United States under the trademarked name Arnel. Triacetate fabrics became known for their greater shape retention, resistance to shrinking, and ease of washing and drying.

      Production of acetate fibres has declined since the mid-20th century partly because of competition from polyester fibres, which have the same or better “wash-and-wear” properties, can be ironed at higher temperatures, and are less expensive. Nevertheless, acetate fibres are still used in “easy care” garments and for the inner linings of clothing because of their high sheen. Cellulose diacetate tow (bundles of fibre) has become the principal material for cigarette filters.

      The first commercial use of cellulose diacetate as a plastic was in so-called safety film, which began to replace celluloid film in motion-picture photography in the 1920s. Acetate was given further impetus by the development of injection molding, a rapid and efficient forming technique to which acetate was particularly amenable but to which celluloid could not be subjected owing to the high temperatures involved. Cellulose acetate became widely used in the automotive industry because of its mechanical strength, toughness, wear resistance, transparency, and ease of moldability. Its high resistance to impact made it a desirable material for protective goggles, tool handles, oil gauges, and the like. With the introduction of newer polymers beginning in the 1930s and '40s, however, cellulose acetate plastic went into decline. It is still extruded or cast into film or sheet used in packaging, membrane filters, and photographic film, and it is injection-molded into small parts such as toothbrushes and eyeglass frames.

Polyamides
      A polyamide is a polymer that contains recurring amide groups (R−CO−NH−R′) as integral parts of the main polymer chain. Synthetic polyamides are produced by a condensaton reaction between monomers, in which the linkage of the molecules occurs through the formation of the amide groups. They may be produced by the interaction of a diamine (a compound containing two amino [NH2] groups—e.g., hexamethylenediamine) and a dicarboxylic acid (containing two carboxyl [CO−OH] groups—e.g., adipic acid), or they may be formed by the self-condensation of an amino acid or an amino-acid derivative. The most important amide polymers are the nylons, an extremely versatile class of material that is an indispensable fibre and plastic. In this section the aramids, “aromatic polyamides” that contain benzene rings in their carboxylic-acid portions, are also described.

      In October 1938, DuPont announced the invention of the first wholly synthetic fibre ever produced. Given the trade name Nylon (which has now become a generic term), the material was actually polyhexamethylene adipamide, also known as nylon 6,6 for the presence of six carbon atoms in each of its two monomers. Commercial production of the new fibre began in 1939 at DuPont's plant in Seaford, Del., U.S., which in 1995 was designated a historic landmark by the American Chemical Society. Soon after the DuPont fibre was marketed, nylon 6 (polycaprolactam) was produced in Europe based on the polymerization of caprolactam. Nylon 6 and nylon 6,6 have almost the same structure and similar properties and are still the most important polyamide fibres worldwide. Their repeating units have the following structure:

      Nylon 6,6 was first synthesized at DuPont in 1935 by Wallace Hume Carothers by the condensation reaction of adipic acid and 1,6-hexamethylenediamine:

      As developed by Carothers, Julian Hill, and coworkers, the production process involved the use of a molecular still, which allowed polymerization to proceed more nearly to completion by eliminating water produced in the condensation reaction. Nylon arrived on the scene just in time to replace silk (a natural polyamide), whose East Asian supply sources had been cut off by imperial Japan. Women's stockings made of the new fibre were exhibited at the Golden Gate International Exposition in San Francisco and at the New York World's Fair in 1939. The next year they went on sale throughout the United States, touching off a nylon mania that survived diversion of the fibre to military use during World War II and continued after the war with such intensity that nylon virtually established the synthetic-fibre industry. The high strength, elasticity, abrasion resistance, mildew resistance, lustre, dyeability, and shape-holding properties of the material made it ideal for innumerable applications in apparel, home furnishings, automobiles, and machinery. In addition, extruded and molded plastic parts made of nylon exhibited high melting points, stiffness, toughness, strength, and chemical inertness; they found immediate use as gear wheels, oil seals, bearings, and temperature-resistant packaging film.

      Nylon is still a very important fibre, and its market has grown greatly since its introduction. However, it has yielded some market share to fibres of polyethylene terephthalate (see the section on Polyesters (industrial polymers, major)), which are cheaper to produce and display many superior properties. In apparel and home furnishings, nylon is an important fibre, especially in hosiery, lingerie, stretch fabrics and sports garments, soft-sided luggage, furniture upholstery, and carpets. (For carpeting the nylon fibre is made in large-diameter filaments.) Industrial uses of nylon fibre include automobile and truck tires, ropes, seat belts, parachutes, substrates for coated fabrics such as artificial leather, fire and garden hoses, nonwoven fabrics for carpet underlayments, and disposable garments for the health-care industry. As plastics the nylons still find employment as an engineering plastic—for example, in bearings, pulleys, gears, zippers, and automobile fan blades.

      Unlike rayon and acetate, nylon fibres are melt-spun—a process described in the article man-made fibre (fibre, man-made). Other polyamides of commercial importance include nylons 4,6; 6,10; 6,12; and 12,12—each prepared from diamines and dicarboxylic acids; nylon 11, prepared by step-growth polymerization from the amino acid H2N(CH2)10COOH; and nylon 12, made by ring-opening polymerization of a cyclic amide.

Aramids
      Following the success of nylons, aramids (aromatic nylons) were prepared by condensation of a diamine and terephthalic acid, a carboxylic acid that contains a hexagonal benzene ring in its molecules. The close packing of the aromatic polymer chains produced a strong, tough, stiff, high-melting fibre for radial tires, heat- or flame-resistant fabrics, bulletproof clothing, and fibre-reinforced composite materials. DuPont began to produce Nomex (its trademark for poly-meta-phenylene isophthalamide) in 1961 and Kevlar (the trademarked name of poly-para-phenylene terephthalamide) in 1971. These two compounds are distinguished by the structure of their polymer chains, Kevlar containing para-oriented phenyl rings and Nomex containing meta-oriented rings:

      Nomex and similar aramids marketed by other companies are generally dry-spun from the solution in which the polymer is prepared. The polymer used for Kevlar and related compounds, on the other hand, is wet-spun from a hot, high-solids solution of concentrated sulfuric acid. Because of the rodlike structure of the para-oriented aramids, a “liquid-crystalline” solution is obtained that preorients the molecules even before they are spun, leading to as-spun fibres of ultrahigh strength and ultrahigh stiffness. Kevlar, which is five times stronger per weight than steel and is best known for its use in bulletproof vests, was developed at DuPont by Stephanie Kwolek, Herbert Blades, and Paul W. Morgan. In 1978 Kwolek also produced from aramids the first polymeric liquid crystals.

      Aramids are not produced in as high a volume as the commodity fibres such as nylon and polyester, but because of their high unit price they represent a large business. End uses for aramids in the home are few (Nomex-type fibres have been made into ironing-board covers), but industrial uses are increasing (especially for aramids of the Kevlar class) as designers of products learn how to exploit the properties offered by these unusual materials.

      Aside from the above-mentioned bulletproof vests, Kevlar and its competitors are employed in belts for radial tires, cables, reinforced composites for aircraft panels and boat hulls, flame-resistant garments (especially in blends with Nomex), sports equipment such as golf club shafts and lightweight bicycles, and as asbestos replacements in clutches and brakes. Nomex-type fibres are made into filter bags for hot stack gases; clothes for presses that apply permanent-press finishes to fabrics; dryer belts for papermakers; insulation paper and braid for electric motors; flame-resistant protective clothing for fire fighters, military pilots, and race-car drivers; and V belts and hoses.

Polyesters (polyester)
      Polyesters are polymers made by a condensation reaction taking place between monomers in which the linkage between the molecules occurs through the formation of ester groups. The esters, which in almost all cases link an organic alcohol to a carboxylic acid, have the general structure

      where R and R′ are any organic combining groups. The major industrial polyesters include polyethylene terephthalate, polycarbonate, degradable polyesters, alkyds, and unsaturated polyesters.

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET)
      PET is produced by the step-growth polymerization of ethylene glycol and terephthalic acid. The presence of the large benzene rings in the repeating units

      gives the polymer notable stiffness and strength, especially when the polymer chains are aligned with one another in an orderly arrangement by drawing (stretching). In this semicrystalline form, PET is made into a high-strength textile fibre marketed under such trademarked names as Dacron (DuPont) and Terylene (Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd.). The stiffness of PET fibres makes them highly resistant to deformation, so that they impart excellent resistance to wrinkling in fabrics. They are often used in durable-press blends with other fibres such as rayon, wool, and cotton, reinforcing the inherent properties of those fibres while contributing to the ability of the fabric to recover from wrinkling.

      PET is also made into fibre filling for insulated clothing and for furniture and pillows. When made in very fine filaments, it is used in artificial silk, and in large-diameter filaments it is used in carpets. Among the industrial applications of PET are automobile tire yarns, conveyor belts and drive belts, reinforcement for fire and garden hoses, seat belts (an application in which it has largely replaced nylon), nonwoven fabrics for stabilizing drainage ditches, culverts, and railroad beds, and nonwovens for use as diaper top sheets and disposable medical garments. PET is the most important of the man-made fibres in weight produced and in value.

      At a slightly higher molecular weight, PET is made into a high-strength plastic that can be shaped by all the common methods employed with other thermoplastics. Recording tape and magnetic film is produced by extrusion of PET film (often sold under the trademarks Mylar and Melinex). Molten PET can be blow-molded into a transparent container of high strength and rigidity that also possesses good impermeability to gas and liquid. In this form PET has become widely used in carbonated-beverage bottles and in jars for food processed at low temperatures. It is the most widely recycled plastic.

      PET was first prepared in England by J. Rex Whinfield and James T. Dickson of the Calico Printers Association during a study of phthalic acid begun in 1940. Because of wartime restrictions, patent specifications for the new material, named Terylene, were not published, and production by ICI did not begin until 1954. Meanwhile, by 1945 DuPont (DuPont Company) had independently developed a practical preparation process from terephthalic acid, and in 1953 the company began to produce Dacron.

Polybutylene terephthalate (PBT)
      PBT, a strong and highly crystalline engineering plastic, is similar in structure to PET but has a lower melting point, so that it can be processed at lower temperatures. It is used in applications similar to those of Mylar.

      Marketed under the trademarked names Lexan and Merlon, among others, PC is a special type of polyester used as an engineering plastic. It has exceptional stiffness, mainly by virtue of having more aromatic rings incorporated into the polyester chain:

      This structure is arrived at by reacting bisphenol A, an aromatic derivative of benzene, with phosgene, a highly reactive and toxic gas.

      Polycarbonate is highly transparent, has an impact strength considerably higher than most plastics, and can be injection-molded, blow-molded, and extruded. These properties lead to its fabrication into large carboys for water, shatter-proof windows, safety shields, and safety helmets. It is the favoured plastic for injection-molding into compact discs.

Degradable polyesters
      Several degradable polyesters are commercially available. These include polyglycolic acid (PGA), polylactic acid (PLA), poly-2-hydroxy butyrate (PHB), and polycaprolactone (PCL), as well as their copolymers:

      PGA, PLA, and PCL are prepared by acid-catalyzed ring-opening polymerization of cyclic esters. PHB, on the other hand, is made from sugars and starches by bacterial action. Degradation of the ester groups linking the monomers is brought about by microorganisms or water. Because the degradation products are natural metabolites, the polymers are of interest in medical applications. Besides being made into degradable bottles and packaging film, these compounds can find applications in controlled-release drug packaging and in absorbable surgical sutures.

Alkyds and oil-free coating polyesters
      Alkyds, or alkyd resins, are highly complex network polyesters that are manufactured for the paint industry. Developed from research conducted at the General Electric Co. in the 1920s, they are made from dicarboxylic acids or their anhydrides and polyfunctional alcohols such as glycerol. To the ester-forming monomers are added modifiers consisting of unsaturated oils such as tung oil, linseed oil, or dehydrated castor oil. The resulting polymers are thus branched polyesters with fatty-acid side groups. Because one of the first alcohols used to produce this type of polymer was glycerol (an alcohol derived from natural oils), the term alkyd has traditionally been used in organic coatings science to denote oil-based derivatives of polyester, while the term polyester is traditionally reserved for oil-free polyesters (described below).

      When an alkyd-based coating is applied to a surface, the oil portion of the polyester undergoes a free-radical cross-linking reaction in the presence of oxygen from the surrounding air; this process, known as drying, yields a tack-free surface. (For more detailed discussion of this process, see the article surface coating.) A typical alkyd paint consists of the oil-modified polyester to form the coating film, a solvent such as hexane or mineral spirits to aid in application, metal naphthenates to catalyze the drying reaction, and pigment. A long-oil alkyd contains 60 percent fatty acid by weight, a medium-oil alkyd contains 40–60 percent fatty acid, and a short-oil alkyd contains less than 40 percent. The use of alkyds is decreasing because of difficulties in modifiying these coatings to meet regulations restricting the amount of volatile organic content (VOC) that can be released into the air. (In oil-based surface coatings, VOC is represented by the solvents.) In addition, alkyd resins tend to have lower exterior durability than many of the newer polymer systems. They retain their use in low-performance industrial coatings and interior architectural paint, however.

      In order to meet VOC regulations, alkyds may be made water-reducible by the addition of free acid groups onto the molecules. In the presence of a base such as ammonia, these groups allow the polymers to be solubilized in water. Usually a cosolvent such as 2-butoxyethanol is necessary to maintain a stable solution, and under these conditions the ester linkages that are the basis of the alkyd polymer chain are vulnerable to breakage by hydrolysis. In this case special monomers are often chosen to give the chain hydrolytic stability.

      As is stated above, the term polyester, when used in the context of organic surface coatings, indicates a polyester free of natural-oil modifiers. Such polyesters are used extensively in coatings. The polymer can have a linear structure, but it is often branched, and it is usually in a relatively low-molecular-weight form that can be cross-linked to form a film of high performance. When the polyester is synthesized in the presence of an excess of alcohol, it tends to have hydroxyl end-groups on the molecules, and these molecules can be cross-linked through isocyanate, epoxy, and melamine compounds that react with the hydroxyl groups. If an excess of organic acid is present during polymerization, the polyester will have carboxyl end-groups, and these can become sites for cross-linking with epoxy, melamine, and amine groups. Polyesters with free-acid groups attached to their chains can be solubilized to a water-reducible form, as is the case with alkyds. Again, the hydrolytic stability of the resultant system must be considered.

Unsaturated polyesters
      Unsaturated polyesters are linear copolymers containing carbon-carbon double bonds that are capable of undergoing further polymerization in the presence of free-radical initiators. The copolyesters are prepared from a dicarboxylic acid or its anhydride (usually phthalic anhydride) and an unsaturated dicarboxylic acid or anhydride, along with one or more dialcohols. Most commonly, maleic anhydride provides the unsaturated unit. The linear polymers are subsequently dissolved in a monomer such as styrene and are copolymerized with the styrene in a mold to form a network structure.

      Glass-fibre reinforcement is almost always used in products made of unsaturated polyesters. The principal applications are boat hulls, appliances, business machines, automobile parts, automobile body patching compounds, tubs and shower stalls, flooring, translucent paneling, storage tanks, corrosion-resistant ducting, and building components.

Polyethers (polyether)
      Polyethers are polymers that are formed by the joining of monomers through ether linkages—i.e., two carbon atoms connected to an oxygen atom. A variety of polyethers are manufactured, ranging from engineering plastics to elastomers. The compounds also differ markedly in structure, though they all retain the C−O−C linkage.

Polyacetal
      Also called polyoxymethylene (POM) or simply acetal, polyacetal has the simplest structure of all the polyethers. It is manufactured in a solution process by anionic or cationic chain-growth polymerization of formaldehyde (H2C=O), a reaction analogous to vinyl polymerization. By itself, the polymer is unstable and reverts to monomer on heating to 120° C (250° F); for this reason the commercial product is reacted further with acetic anhydride to cap the ends of the chains (where depolymerization is initiated on heating) with acetate groups. The end-capped polymer is marketed by DuPont under the trademarked name of Delrin. It is a high-strength, highly crystalline engineering plastic that exhibits a low coefficient of friction and excellent resistance to oils, greases, and solvents. Also marketed is a copolymer (trademarked as Celcon by Hoechst Celanese Corp.) prepared from trioxane (a trimer of formaldehyde) and small amounts of ethylene oxide to prevent the polymer from decomposing to formaldehyde on heating.

      Both polyacetal and the copolymer have been used as a replacement for metal in plumbing and automotive parts. Principal uses include appliance parts, electronics components, gears, bushings, bearings, plumbing fixtures, appliances, toys, toiletry and cosmetic articles, food-processing equipment, zippers, and belt buckles.

Polyphenylene oxide (PPO)
      PPO is prepared by oxidative coupling of phenylene oxide monomer

      using oxygen and a copper-based catalyst. The polymer is blended with polystyrene to produce a high-strength, moisture-resistant engineering plastic marketed by the General Electric Co. under the trademarked name of Noryl. It is used in telecommunications and computer equipment, automotive parts, appliances, pipes, and valves.

Polyetherketone (PEK) and polyetheretherketone (PEEK)
      PEK and PEEK are high-strength, radiation-resistant engineering plastics whose structures combine both ether and ketone groups. Both are thermally stable and highly resistant to chemicals. Principal uses are in machine parts, nuclear power-plant equipment, automobile parts, aerospace components, cable insulation, and pump parts.

Epoxies (epoxy resins)
      Epoxies are polyethers built up from monomers in which the ether group takes the form of a three-membered ring known as the epoxide ring:

      While many variations exist, the most common epoxy resin is formed from epichlorohydrin and bisphenol A. These two monomers first form an epoxy prepolymer that retains two terminal epoxide rings:

      In the above structure, n varies from about 2 to 25 repeating units; such low-molecular-weight prepolymers as these are called oligomers. Depending on their average chain length, the prepolymers vary from dense liquids to solids.

      In a typical epoxy reaction, the prepolymers are further polymerized through the opening of the terminal epoxide rings by amines or anhydrides. This process, called curing, yields complex, thermosetting network polymers in which the repeating units are linked by linear ether groups. The highly polar network polymers characteristically exhibit excellent adhesive properties. In addition, because the curing reaction is easy to initiate and proceeds quite readily at room temperature, epoxy resins make very useful surface coatings. Most commonly a two-component system is used, in which one component is a low-molecular-weight polymer with amine end-groups and the other component is an epoxide-terminated polymer. The two components are mixed before application to the surface, where the polymer is allowed to cure.

      Epoxy resins are also made into structural parts such as laminated circuit boards, laminates and composites for aerospace applications, and flooring. For these applications epoxies show high strength when reinforced with fibres of glass, aramid, or carbon.

      The origin of epoxy resins can be traced to the early 20th century. In 1920 American plastics engineers J. MacIntosh and E.Y. Walford received patents for diepoxide plastics obtained by the reaction of epichlorohydrin with phenol or cresol. Over the following two decades the reactions were extended by other researchers to include diols such as bisphenol A. In 1937 the British chemist W.H. Moss reacted glycerin dichlorohydrin with diphenylol propane. These prepolymers, once called ethoxylenes and now called epoxy resins, were cross-linked by heating with phthalic anhydride. Under the trademarked name Araldite, epoxy resins were introduced by Ciba AG (now Ciba-Geigy AG) at the Swiss Industries Fair in 1946. Epoxies were introduced commercially as adhesives in the United States in 1947.

      Polyethers of this type, which include polyethylene oxide, polypropylene oxide, and polytetrahydrofuran, are flexible and relatively noncrystalline. Because they have alcohol groups at the chain ends, they are sometimes called polyether glycols. Indeed, alternative names for the first two compounds are polyethylene glycol (PEG) and polypropylene glycol (PPG). Base-catalyzed, ring-opening polymerization is employed for ethylene and propylene oxides, while acid catalysis is used with tetrahydrofuran. Depending on molecular weight, these polyethers range from viscous liquids to waxy solids. The largest outlet for all three is in the manufacture of polyurethanes (see Polyurethanes). Other applications are lubricants, hydraulic fluids, and surfactants.

Polyimides
      Polyimides are polymers that usually consist of aromatic rings coupled by imide linkages—that is, linkages in which two carbonyl (CO) groups are attached to the same nitrogen (N) atom. There are two categories of these polymers, condensation and addition. The former are made by step-growth polymerization and are linear in structure; the latter are synthesized by heat-activated addition polymerization of diimides and have a network structure.

      Typical of the condensation type is the polyimide sold under the trademarked name of Kapton by DuPont (DuPont Company), which is made from a dianhydride and a diamine. When the two monomers react, the first product formed is a polyamide. The polyamide can be dissolved in solvents for casting into films, or it can be melted and molded. Conversion to polyimide occurs when the intermediate polyamide is heated above 150° C (300° F). Unlike the polyamide, the polyimide is insoluble and infusible. Kapton is stable in inert atmospheres at temperatures up to 500° C (930° F). Related commercial products are polyamideimide (PAI; trademarked as Torlon by Amoco Corporation) and polyetherimide (PEI; trademark Ultem); these two compounds combine the imide function with amide and ether groups, respectively.

      Network polyimides are formed from bismaleimide and bisnadimide precursors. At temperatures above 200° C (390° F), bismaleimides undergo free-radical addition polymerization through the double bonds to form a thermosetting network polymer. Bisnadimides react somewhat differently at elevated temperatures. The nadimide group first decomposes to yield cyclopentadiene and maleimide, which then copolymerize to form the network polyimide structure.

      Polyimides are amorphous plastics that characteristically exhibit great temperature stability and high strength, especially in the form of composites. They are used in aircraft components, sporting goods, electronics components, plastic films, and adhesives.

Polysiloxanes (silicones (silicone))
      Polysiloxanes are polymers whose backbones consist of alternating atoms of silicon and oxygen. Although organic substituents are attached to the silicon atoms, lack of carbon in the backbones of the chains makes polysiloxanes into unusual “inorganic” polymers. They can exist as elastomers, greases, resins, liquids, and adhesives. Their great inertness, resistance to water and oxidation, and stability at high and low temperatures have led to a wide range of commercial applications.

      Siloxanes were first characterized as macromolecules by the English chemist Frederic Stanley Kipping (Kipping, Frederic Stanley) in 1927. Because Kipping thought that the structure of the repeating unit was essentially that of a ketone (that is, the polymer chains formed by silicon atoms, with oxygen atoms attached by double bonds), he incorrectly called them silicones, a name that has persisted. In 1943 Eugene George Rochow at the General Electric Company Laboratories in Schenectady, N.Y., U.S., prepared silicones by the hydrolysis of dialkyldimethoxysilane—a ring-opening process that he patented in 1945 and that remains the basis of modern polymerization methods.

      The most common siloxane polymer, polydimethylsiloxane, is formed when the chlorine atoms of the monomer, dichlorodimethylsilane (Cl2Si[CH3]2), are replaced by hyroxyl (OH) groups by hydrolysis. The resultant unstable compound, silanol (Cl2Si[OH]2), condenses in step-growth fashion to form the polymer, with concomitant loss of water. Some cyclic products are also formed, and these are purified by distillation and converted to polysiloxane by ring-opening polymerization. The repeating unit of polydimethylsiloxane has the following structure:

      Siloxane molecules rotate freely around the Si−O bond, so that, even with vinyl, methyl, or phenyl groups attached to the silicon atoms, the molecule is highly flexible. In addition, the Si−O bond is highly heat-resistant and is not readily attacked by oxygen or ozone. As a result, silicone rubbers are remarkably stable, and they have the lowest glass transition temperature and the highest permeability to gases of any elastomer. On the other hand, the Si−O bond is susceptible to hydrolysis and attack by acids and bases, and the rubber vulcanizates are relatively weak and readily swollen by hydrocarbon oils.

      Nonvulcanized, low-molecular-weight polysiloxanes make excellent lubricants and hydraulic fluids and are known as silicone oils. Vulcanized silicone rubber is prepared in two principal forms: (1) as low-molecular-weight liquid room-temperature-vulcanizing (RTV) polymers that are interlinked at room temperature after being cast or molded into a desired shape or (2) as heat-curable, high-temperature-vulcanizing (HTV) elastomers of higher viscosity that are mixed and processed like other elastomers. RTV elastomers are usually interlinked using reactive vinyl end-groups, whereas HTV materials are usually interlinked by means of peroxides. Silicone rubber is used mainly in O-rings, heat-resistant seals, caulks and gaskets, electrical insulators, flexible molds, and (owing to its chemical inertness) surgical implants.

Polysulfides (polysulfide)
      Polysulfides are polymers that contain one or more groups of sulfur atoms in their backbones. They fall into two types: compounds containing a single sulfur atom per repeating unit and compounds containing two or more. Of the former type, polyphenylene sulfide is the most important. The latter type is known generically as polysulfide rubber or by its trade name, thiokol.

Polyphenylene sulfide (PPS)
      PPS is a high-strength, highly crystalline engineering plastic that exhibits good thermal stability and chemical resistance. It is polymerized by reacting dichlorobenzene monomers with sodium sulfide at about 250° C (480° F) in a high-boiling, polar solvent. Polymerization is accompanied by loss of sodium chloride.

      When electron-donor or electron-acceptor dopants are added to PPS, the polymer becomes a conductor of electricity. PPS is used principally in automotive and machine parts, appliances, electronic and electrical processing equipment, and coatings.

Polysulfide rubber
      Polysulfide rubber was discovered in 1926 by an American chemist, Joseph Cecil Patrick, while he was attempting to obtain ethylene glycol for use as an antifreeze. The elastomer was commercialized under the trade name Thiokol (after the Greek theion, “brimstone” [sulfur] and kommi, “gum”), which eventually became generic. It is known for its excellent resistance to solvents and lubricants.

      The polymer is mainly used in the form of a low-molecular-weight liquid that cures in place to create an elastomeric sealant. It typically consists of sulfur-sulfur linkages connecting short sequences of ethylene, the molecular chain being terminated by reactive mercaptan groups that are also used for interlinking. The sulfur content is high, about 80 percent by weight, making the elastomer a high-density material with a high resistance to swelling by hydrocarbon oils. However, the low stability of the sulfur-sulfur bond also causes a pronounced tendency to relax and flow under pressure. The principal uses of thiokols are in oil-resistant and weather-resistant seals and gaskets. They are also used in gasoline hoses and as binders for solid rocket propellants.

Polyurethanes (polyurethane)
      Polyurethanes are a class of extremely versatile polymers that are made into flexible and rigid foams, fibres, elastomers, and surface coatings. They are formed by reacting an isocyanate (a compound having the functional group NCO) with an alcohol (having the functional group OH).

      Polyurethane molecules can adopt a linear or a network architecture. Linear polyurethanes are formed by reacting a dialcohol with a diisocyanate, whereas network polyurethanes are formed from polyfunctional alcohols or isocyanates. Dialcohol monomers include ethylene glycol (HOCH2CH2OH); diethylene glycol (HOCH2CH2OCH2CH2OH); 1,4-butanediol (HOCH2CH2CH2CH2OH); 1,6-hexanediol (HO[CH2]6OH); alcohol-terminated polyethers such as polyethylene oxide and polypropylene oxide (see Aliphatic polyethers); and flexible, alcohol-terminated polyesters such as poly-1,4-butylene adipate:

      The alcohol-terminated polyethers and polyesters are known as polyols.

      Isocyanates commonly used to prepare polyurethanes are toluene diisocyanate (TDI), methylene-4,4′-diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI), and a polymeric isocyanate (PMDI). These isocyanates have the following structures:

      During the late 1930s Otto Bayer, manager of the IG Farben laboratories in Leverkusen, Ger., prepared many polyurethanes by condensation reaction of dihydric alcohols such as 1,4-butanediol with difunctional diisocyanates. A major breakthrough in the commercial application of polyurethane did not occur until 1941, when a trace of moisture reacted with isocyanate to produce carbon dioxide. The production of this gas resulted in many small empty areas, or cells, in the product (which was subsequently called “imitation Swiss cheese”). In 1953 Bayer and the Monsanto Chemical Company (now Monsanto Company) formed the Mobay Chemical Corporation to produce polyurethane in the United States.

Polyurethane foams (foam)
      The largest segment of the market for polyurethanes is in rigid and flexible foams. Flexible foams are usually made with polyols and an excess of TDI. Foam is manufactured by adding water, which reacts with the terminal isocyanate groups to increase the molecular weight through urea linkages while simultaneously releasing carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide gas, referred to as the blowing agent, is trapped as bubbles in the increasingly viscous polymer. The principal uses of flexible foam are in upholstery, bedding, automobile seats, crash panels, carpet underlays, textile laminates, and sponges.

      Rigid foams are made with PMDI and polyether glycols, along with low-molecular-weight dialcohols to increase the rigidity. Use of PMDI, which contains a larger number of reactive functional groups, results in a network polyurethane. A blowing agent such as pentane is normally added to augment the foaming. (Chlorofluorocarbons such as Freon [trademark] used to be employed as blowing agents before they were declared unacceptable for depleting ozone in the stratosphere.) Rigid polyurethane foam is used in insulation, packaging, marine flotation equipment, and lightweight furnishings.

Polyurethane fibres
      Polyurethanes are the basis of a novel type of elastomeric fibre known generically as spandex. Spandex is a segmented polyurethane—that is, a fibre composed of alternating rigid and flexible segments that display different stretch-resistance characteristics. The rigid segments are normally prepared from MDI and a low-molecular-weight dialcohol such as ethylene glycol or 1,4-butanediol, while the flexible segments are made with MDI and a polyether or polyester glycol. The rigid segments have a tendency to aggregate, and the flexible segments act as springs connecting the rigid segments. As a result, spandex fibres can be stretched to great lengths, yet they also display a greater stretch-resistance than other rubbers and do not break down on repeated stretching. They also have good strength, high uniformity, and high abrasion resistance. Spandex is well suited for garments with high stretch requirements, such as support hose, swimsuits, and sportswear.

Polyurethane elastomers (elastomer)
      Two types of polyurethane elastomers are marketed: thermosetting network polymers and thermoplastic elastomers. The latter are block copolymers formulated in much the same way as are polyurethane fibres. The former make use of polyfunctional monomers such as PMDI or glycerol; further cross-linking occurs via reactions involving isocyanate and urethane groups.

      The polymerization of monomers to form network polyurethanes is so rapid that articles may be fabricated by injecting the reacting monomers directly into a mold, rather than the more usual method of molding a preformed polymer. This technology, known as reaction injection molding, accounts for much of the production of thermosetting elastomers made from polyurethane. Polyurethane elastomers are made into automobile parts, industrial rollers, flexible molds, forklift tires, roller-skate and skateboard wheels, medical equipment, and shoe soles.

Polyurethane surface coatings (surface coating)
      Polyurethanes form some of the highest-performance coatings available. A variety of formulations is marketed. One type is a one-component (one-pot) prepolymer containing excess isocyanate groups. Upon application of the liquid to a surface, these groups react with water from the atmosphere to form a urea, which further reacts with other isocyanate groups to provide the cross-linking necessary to cure the coating. In another one-pot formulation, the isocyanate groups of the prepolymer are blocked by a phenol. Curing is accomplished by baking the coating to about 150° C (300° F). Alkyd-type one-pot coatings, in which the polyurethane is modified with drying oils, are also available.

      Polyurethanes are also made into two-component coatings, in which isocyanate-terminated prepolymers serve as one component and a polyfunctional alcohol serves as the other. When the components are mixed in the presence of a catalyst, the isocyanate and alcohol groups react rapidly to cure the coating.

      Polyurethane surface coatings are applied to wood, concrete, and automobile and machine parts. They also have marine applications.

Malcolm P. Stevens George B. Kauffman Ferdinand Rodriguez Alan N. Gent J. Preston Gordon P. Bierwagen

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Universalium. 2010.

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