ISSN:
0449-2978
Keywords:
Physics
;
Polymer and Materials Science
Source:
Wiley InterScience Backfile Collection 1832-2000
Topics:
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Physics
Notes:
The statistical mechanical treatment of polymeric chains in terms of the largest eigenvalue of the product of statistical weight matrices for the rotational interactions of skeletal bonds of the repeat unit becomes excessively complicated if the repeat unit spans more than three or four skeletal bonds. Moreover, such treatment is necessarily limited to chains in which the number of repeat units is indefinitely large. Newer methods are readily applicable to chains of any degree of polymerization comprising repeat units of any realizable length. If interdependence of neighboring bond rotations is confined to bond pairs within a given unit, rotations about a pair of bonds belonging to neighboring units being mutually independent, further simplifications may be introduced without sacrifice of rigor. Polyamides, in which rotation about bonds on opposite sides of the amide group are independent, are polymers of this type. Adherence of the amide group to the planar trans conformation favors a more extended configuration of the chain, but this effect is dominated by the smaller steric repulsions affecting rotations about bonds which are first, second, and third neighbors of the amide group. It is for this reason that the characteristic ratio 〈r2〉0〉/nl2 for poly(hexamethylene adipamide), ca. 6.0 according to experimental results of Saunders, is less than the value, 8.0, for polymethylene at 25°C. The characteristic ratios and molecular dipole moments are computed as functions of the degree of polymerization. The poly(εaminocaproamide) chain also is treated.
Additional Material:
6 Ill.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/pol.1967.160050301
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