How Does Chemical Bonding Explain The Properties Of Chemical And Biological Polymers?

Chemistry- Assignment 1:

How does chemical bonding explain the properties of chemical and biological polymers?

Introduction

Until the early 1920 's, most chemists did not believe that the existence of molecules with a molecular weight that was greater than a few thousand to be possible as Reusch (2013) states. This view however was challenged by Hermann Staudinger in 1920. Staudinger was a chemist who studied natural compounds of which included rubber. His research in 1922 led to the idea that these compounds were actually macromolecules that were made up of over 10,000 atoms instead of being groups of small molecules.

As mentioned earlier, polymer is what is known as a macromolecule, this means that it is a very large molecule. Due to the size of these large molecules they can entangle with other larger molecules, this is what allows them to develop many different properties, some of which include the abilities to make themselves into fibres or elastomers, these properties can never be developed on a small molecule. A high amount of polymer molecules are on the order of hundreds of Angstroms in size, however some can be exceptionally large, for example some chains of deoxyribonucleic acid can even approach a few centimetres long if they are stretched out (PenState University 2013 ,Polymers[online]). Most polymer chains are generally linear, branched or cross-linked however there are still other topologies are known, they are just more uncommon. In cross-linked polymers, often referred to as either a network or a thermoset polymer, there are covalent bonds that connect multiple chains together, this means that the molecular weight of these particles approaches infinity on these materials, for example, the average rubber ban...

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