CHEMISTRY INVESTIGATORY

PROJECT
ON POLYMERS

PRESENTED BY :
VIDHISHA MAKEN,CLASS 12TH

SESSION-2019-20
CONTENTS
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• GENERAL OVERVIEW
• SOME POLYMERS
• BIODEGRADABLE AND NON BIODEGRADABLE POLYMERS
• APPLICATIONS OF POLYMERS:
1. MEDICAL APPLICATIONS
2. SOME OTHER APPLICATIONS
• CONCLUSION
• BIBLIOGRAPHY
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• I am very grateful to my chemistry teacher, Mr. RP sir , who has been
a constant source of inspiration and guidance. He supported me with
all my ideas and helped me to the maximum extend possible. He also
gave me enough extra time to find all the required information to
turn my ideas into a single project. This project would never have
existed, if it wasn’t for his passion to teach.
• I would also like to thank our lab assistant , and my friends who
helped me to collect the information required.
 POLYMERS-GENERAL OVERVIEW
• A polymer is a large molecule (macromolecule) composed of repeating structural units
typically connected by covalent chemical bonds. While polymer in popular usage suggests
plastic, the term actually refers to a large class of natural and synthetic materials with a
variety of properties

Due to the extraordinary range of properties accessible in polymeric materials, they have come
to play an essential and ubiquitous role in everyday life - from plastics and elastomers on the
one hand to natural biopolymers such as DNA and proteins that are essential for life on the
other. A simple example is polyethylene, whose repeating unit is based on ethylene (IUPAC
name ethene) monomer (Image 2.1). Most commonly, as in this example, the continuously
linked backbone of a polymer consists mainly of carbon atoms. However, other structures do
exist; for example, elements such as silicon form familiar materials such as silicones, examples
being silly putty and waterproof plumbing sealant. The backbone of DNA is in fact based on
repeating units of polysaccharides (e.g. cellulose) which are joined together by glycosidic bonds
via oxygen atoms.
Natural polymers (from the Greek poly meaning “many” and meros
meaning “parts”) are found in many forms such as horns of animals,
tortoise shell, rosin (from pine trees), and from distillation of organic
materials. One of the most useful of the natural polymers was rubber,
obtained from the sap of the hevea tree. (Rubber was named by a chemist
found that a piece of solidified latex gum was good for rubbing out pencil
marks on paper. In Great Britain, erasers are still called “rubbers”.) Natural
rubber had only limited use as it became brittle in the cold and melted
when warmed. In 1839, Charles Goodyear discovered, through a lucky
accident, that by heating the latex with sulfur, the properties were
changed making the rubber more flexible and temperature stable. That
process became known as vulcanization.
The first synthetic polymer, a phenol-formaldehyde polymer, was introduced
under the name “Bakelite” (Image 2.2 & 2.3), by Leo Baekeland in 1909. Its
original use was to make billiard balls. Rayon, the first synthetic fiber was
developed as a replacement for silk in 1911. Although many polymers were
made in the following years, the technology to mass produce them was not
developed until World War II, when there was a need to develop synthetic
rubber for tires and other wartime applications and nylon for parachutes. Since
that time, the polymer industry has grown and diversified into one of the
fastest growing industries in the world. Today, polymers are commonly used in
thousands of products as plastics, elastomers, coatings, and adhesives. They
make up about 80% of the organic chemical industry with products produced at
approximately 150 kg of polymers per person annually in the United States.
 SOME POLYMERS
AND THEIR PROPERTIERS
1. Polythene
(ii) High density
Polymer of ethylene or ethene.
polyethylene (HOP)
(i) Low density polythene (LDP)

It is tough, flexible, transparent, chemically

inert as well as poor conductor pf electricity.
It has high density due to close packing. It is also
It has moderate tensile strength but good
chemically inert and more tougher and harder.
tearing strength.
It is used for making containers, house wares, bottles,
It is used in the insulation of electricity toyes, electric insulation etc.
carrying wires and manufacture of squeeze
bottles, toys and flexible pipes.
 2. Polystyrene (Styrone)

The monomers are styrene

molecules. It is thermoplastic. It is
used for making toys, radio and TV
cabinets.

3. Polyvinylchloride (PVC)

It is used for making rain coats, toys,

electrical insulation. It is hard and
resistant to heat and chemicals.
 4. Polypropylene (PP)

It is obtained by polymerising propylene in

the presence of Ziegler-Natta catalyst

6. Polyacrylonitril
e

It is used as a substitute for wool in making

commercial fibres as orIon or acrilan.

Polyamides
The polymers which contain an
amide linkage in chain are known
as polyamide, e.g., nylon-6, 6.
1. Nylon-6,6
It is obtained by the condensation
of adipic acid and
hexamethylenediamine with the
elimination of water molecule
The polyamides are identified by numbers.
These numbers refer to the number of
carbon atoms in diamine and in the dibasic
acid. As in the above case, the carbon
atoms are 6 in each case, therefore the
product is described as _nylon-66.
Properties and uses
Nylon-66 is a linear polymer and has very
high tensile strength. It shows good
resistance to abrasion. Nylon-66 is usually
fabricated into sheets. It is used in bristles
for brushes and in textile
2. Nylon-6
Nylon-6 is obtained by heating caprolactam
with water at a high temperature.
 Resins
1. Phenol-Formaldehyde Polymer
(Bakelite and Related Polymers)

These polymers are obtained by the condensation

reaction of phenol with formaldehyde in the
presence of either acid or a base catalyst. The
reaction involves the formation of methylene bridge
at ortho, para or both ortho and para positions. A
linear or cross linked material is obtained depending
upon the condition of reaction.

Bakelite is used for making combs, photograph records, electrical

switches etc. Soft bakelites with low degree of polymerisation are used
as binding glue for laminated wooden plants, in varnishes and lacquers
2. Melamine-formaldehyde Resin

It is a copolymer formed by the

polymerisation of melamine (which is a
heterocyclic triamine) and formaldehyde as
follows :

Properties and Uses

It is very hard and tough. It has assumed
great importance these days particularly
in making crockery. They do not break
even when droped from a height.
4. Natural Rubber
Natural rubber is a coiled linear 1, 4-
polymer of isoprene.In the polymer chain of
natural rubber, the residual double bonds are
located between C2 and C3 of the isoprene unit.
All these double bonds have cis configuration,
and thus natural rubber is cis-l,4-polyisoprene.
Natural rubber is soft and sticky. It can be used
only in the temperature range 10°C-50°C. At
higher temperature, it becomes soft and at low
temperature, it becomes brittle. It has higb
water absorption capacity. It is attacked by
oxidising agents and organic solvents. As such,
it cannot be used very extensively for
commercial puposes
.
Vulcanisation of Rubber
The properties of natural rubber can be
modified by introducing -S-S- polysulphide
crosslinks in its structure. This process of
introducing -S-S- crosslnks in the structure of
natural rubber by heating with sulphur at
11O°C is called vulcanlsation of rubber.
Vulcanisatlon is carried out by adding sulphur
(3-5%) and zinc oxide to the rubber, and then
heating the object at about 110°Cfor about 20-
30 minutes. Zinc oxide accelerates the rate of
vulcanisation. Vulcanisation introduces
polysulphide (-S-S-) bonds between the
adjacent chains. These crosslinks tend to limit
the motion of chains relative to each other.
 What are Biodegradable Polymer
These are those polymers which get decomposed under
aerobic or anaerobic conditions, as a result of the action
of microorganism/enzymes. The materials develop it like
starch, cellulose, and polyesters. Aliphatic polyesters are
the most commonly used polymers of this type.
Examples Of Biodegradable Polymers
Some examples are given as follows:-
Poly β-hydroxybutyrate – co-β-hydroxyvalerate
(PHBV): It is derived by combining 3-hydroxy butanoic
acid and 3-hydroxy pentanoic acid, in which monomers
are cross-linked by an ester linkage. It decomposes to
form carbon dioxide and water. It is brittle in nature, and it
can be used in the production of drugs and manufacturing
of bottles.
What are Non-Biodegradable Polymer:
They consist of long chains of carbon and hydrogen
atoms. These molecules form an interatomic type of
bonding and is adamant meaning it is tough for
microbes to break the bonds and digest them. Thus a
long period is required to decompose them.
Examples Of Non-Biodegradable Polymer
Some of the examples are:
Polyethylene: They are of three types:
•Linear high-density polyethylene (HDPE)
•Branched low-density polyethylene (LDPE)
•Ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene(UHMWPE)
These have high strength and lubricity and are also
used in orthopaedic implants and catheters.
 MEDICAL APPLICATIONS
Natural polymers
Among natural polymers we can distinguish: proteins
(e.g. silk, collagen, fibrin), polysaccharides (e.g.
alginate, hyaluronic acid, chitosan) and
polynucleotides (e.g. DNA, RNA). Proteins and
polysaccharides are very often used in tissue
engineering. The most common natural polymers are
presented below.
Collagen is ECM protein. We know 27 types of
collagen, wherein type I collagen is the most
abundant. It is fibrillar, rod-shaped molecule, which
can be found for example in tendon, ligament, bone,
skin and cornea. Collagen fibers are the tissue
structural framework and are responsible for suitable
tensile strength. Great importance of collagen in
tissue structure causes that this polymer is very often
used as material for tissue engineering scaffolds.
Silks are proteins produced in fiber form by silkworms
and spiders. They are generally composed of β-sheet
structures. These structures allow to tight packing of
stacked sheets of hydrogen bonded chains. The assembly
of silk and the strength and resiliency of silk fibers are
the result of large hydrophobic domains interspaced with
smaller hydrophilic domains. Silks are used as
biomaterials because of their biocompatibility, controlled
proteolytic biodegradability, impressive mechanical
properties, morphologic flexibility and the ability to
immobilize growth factor.
Fibrin is a fibrous protein involved in the clotting of
blood. It is formed by polymerization process with the
action of thrombin and activated factor XIII, which
convert fibrinogen into fibrin. Cross-linking is one
method in which diverse microstructural and mechanical
properties of fibrin networks can be achieved. What is
interesting, by using fibrin made from a patient’s own
blood, autologous scaffolds can be manufactured.
 Hyaluronic acid (HA) is a natural linear glycosaminoglycan, co-polymer of D-glucuronic acid
and N-acetyl-D-glucosamine. Hyaluronic acid is present in connective, epithelial and neural
tissue and synovial fluid. What important, HA is biocompatible, biodegradable and has
important tissue healing properties, such as induction of angiogenesis, and the promotion of
cell migration, adhesion, and proliferation. It has been suggested that this polymer display also
anti-inflammatory and bacteriostatic action.

Alginates are a low-cost marine materials extracted from the cell walls of brown seaweed. Alginates are
salts of alginic acid. Naturally, alginates occur as calcium, magnesium and sodium salts. The very
important feature of alginates is that they can form hydrogel thanks to ion-crosslinking, for example Ca2+-
crosslinking. Chemically, alginates are linear copolymers containing blocks of (1,4)-linked β-D-
mannuronate (M) and α-L-guluronate (G) residues. The M/G ratio, G-block length and molecular weight
affect the physical and mechanical properties of alginate and resultant hydrogel.

Chitosan is cationic polysaccharide obtained from deacetylation of chitin built from (beta-1,4-
linked N-acetylglucosamine units. Deacetylation is used due to insolubility of chitin in common
solvents and difficult processing. Degree of the deacetylation has impact on crystallinity and
molecular weight of the chitosan. This cationic polymer can form electrostatic interactions with
negatively charged cell surfaces and also display antimicrobial activity. Thanks to ability of
chitosan to interact with glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) scaffolds based on chitosan can have a
direct impact on the modulation of cytokines and growth factors and thus local tissue
regeneration.
 SOME MORE APPLICATIONS
• The use of polymer in agriculture is gaining popularity in science,
particularly in the field of polymer chemistry. This has provided
solutions to the problems of the present day agriculture which is to
maximize land and
water productivity without threatening the environment and the
natural resources. Superabsorbent polymer hydrogels potentially
influence soil permeability, density, structure, texture, evaporation
and infiltration rates of water through the soils.
Functionalized polymers were used to increase the efficiency of
pesticides and herbicides, allowing lower doses to be used and to
indirectly protect the environment by reducing pollution and clean-up
existing pollutants. This account; a detailed review study, has been
put together as an expose on the myriad application of polymer in the
field of agriculture, highlighting present research trend , impact on
food security and future outlook.
 CONCLUSION
From the research we infer that polymers are classified in many
ways and are of various types,having numerous uses
The polymers can be natural semi synthetic or completely
synthetic.
These polymers can be used in variety of fields . They have
medical , agricultural and applications in various other fields .
They possess a wide range of physical,chemical and mechanical
properties.
Numerous biodegradable and synthetic polymers are available
and still being developed for sustained and targeted drug delivery
applications.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY
NCERT TEXTBOOK
OTHER REFERENCE BOOKS
SUBJECT TEACHER
INTERNET