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GENERAL ARTICLE
Condensation Polymerization
S Ramakrishnan
S Ramakrishnan is a
professor in the Department
of Inorganic and Physical
Chemistry at the Indian
Institute of Science. His
research group works
towards exploring new
strategies to develop polymers
that can self-segregate, fold,
and organize into sub-10 nm
size microphase separated
morphologies; in addition,
they work on hyperbranched
polymers and 2D polymers.
The very idea that large polymer molecules can indeed ex-
ist was hotly debated during the early part of the 20th cen-
tury. As highlighted by Sivaram in his articles on Carothers
and Flory, Staudinger’s macromolecular hypothesis was fi-
nally accepted, and the study of polymers gained momentum
because of the remarkable efforts of the these two individuals
who laid down the foundations concerning the processes that
led to the formation of large polymer molecules, and to those
that led to an understanding of many of their extraordinary
physical properties. Condensation polymerizations, as the
name suggests, utilizes bond-forming reactions that generate
a small molecule condensate, which often needs to be contin-
uously removed to facilitate the formation of the polymer. In
this article, I shall describe some of the essential principles of
condensation polymerizations or more appropriately called
step-growth polymerizations; and I will also describe some
interesting extensions that lead to the formation of polymer
networks and highly branched polymers.
All of us learn about organic chemical reactions in high school
and college; we are taught about many types of chemical reac-
tions, like addition, eliminations, hydrolysis, oxidation, esterifi-
cation, etc. Of these reactions, some of them, like the reaction
between a carboxylic acid and an alcohol, results in the linking of
two different molecular fragments; in this case, the acid and alco-
hol fragments are linked via an ester linkage. There are numerous
other chemical reactions that result in such linking of two molec-
ular fragments. All such reactions, in principle, could be poten- Keywords
Polymers, polycondensation,
polyester, chain-growth, step-
growth, degree of polymerization,
gel-point, polymer networks,
hyperbranched polymers.
tially useful to prepare long-chain polymer molecules. However,
only a few among these are actually useful to prepare polymers.
In this article, I will explain what it takes for a chemical reaction,
to find a place in this unique league of reactions.
RESONANCE | April 2017 355
GENERAL ARTICLE
How are Polymers Really Formed?
At first, let us begin by treating molecules as LEGO-type building
blocks with certain strict rules for linking them; a ball can readily
fit with a socket, whereas, neither two balls nor two sockets can
stick together (Figure 1).
It is evident that blocks carrying a ball and a socket would string
together to form a long chain. Similarly, if we begin with blocks
carrying two sockets and those carrying two balls, these too would
form long chains. We also recognize that there should be nothing
that prevents the ball at one end of a chain linking up with the
socket at the other to form a ring! This would, of course, very
much depend on the flexibility of the chain formed; clearly, stiff
rod-like chains will find it more difficult to form rings. The pro-
cess of linking a large number of small molecules, akin to the
building blocks, is essentially the process of polycondensation or
step-growth polymerization. Before we leave this LEGO-style
discussion, I would leave you with two alternate scenarios; one is
to use building blocks bearing two sockets and two balls, as de-
picted in the figure, and the other is to use blocks that contain two
balls but only one socket! What would be the possible outcome
in these two cases? Try this out on your own; we will return to
such possibilities later in the article.
Figure 1. Ball and socket
depiction of the polyconden-
sation process. Either a
single building block bear-
ing a ball and a socket
(AB) or two different build-
ing blocks, each bearing two
balls (BB) or two sockets
(AA), can link to form lin-
ear chains. Rings could also
be formed during such pro-
cesses by the ball at one
end of the chain linking
with the socket at the other.
Two other types of build-
ing blocks are also shown,
which would lead to other
interesting structures, which
will be discussed later.
356 RESONANCE | April 2017
GENERAL ARTICLE
Figure 2. Example of a
polycondensation process
between a dicarboxylic
acid and a diol to form a
polyester.
Now, Some Real Chemistry!
Having described a simple conceptual framework for the forma-
tion of polymers starting from suitable building blocks, let us look
at some real cases. First, we examine the simplest case of the re-
action of a dicarboxylic acid, like adipic acid, and a diol, like
1,6-hexane diol (Figure 2). Each of these molecules would be
considered to have a functionality of 2, implying that each carry
two reaction sites and therefore both are bifunctional. Under acid-
catalysed conditions, this should lead to the formation of a long
chain polyester by a process termed as polycondensation – ‘poly’
implying that several such events occur, and ‘condensation’ im-
plies that there is a condensate that is formed. The condensate
formed in this case, as you would have guessed, is H2O. Such re-
actions would be classified as AA + BB type condensation, anal-
ogous to connecting blocks with two balls and those with two
sockets1 1 Remember: we start with
a very large number of such
molecules, and many reactions
occur simultaneously and ran-
domly between any carboxylic
acid and alcohol group.
. Carothers posed some fairly simple questions about
such polycondensations [1]:
a) How does the average length of the chain vary with the number
of ball-socket connections that have been made?
b) What if some of the blocks are broken and contain only one ball
instead of two; what would be the effect of having such blocks on
the average length of the chain?
c) What if a few blocks have three balls instead of two?
Before we take this up, let us define a few terms. Fractional con-
version, p is a term that describes the extent to which the reaction
RESONANCE | April 2017 357
GENERAL ARTICLE
has occurred, which in the above example would be the fraction
of carboxylic acid groups that has reacted to form an ester. In the
building block analogy, p would be the fraction of balls that have
been fixed to sockets. In the case of polyester formation, one way
to estimate p would be to determine the residual carboxylic acid
concentration (or acid number) by titration – this is often done in
the industry in order to follow the progress of such polyconden-
sation processes. An alternate approach would be to measure the
amount of the condensate, H2O, formed; this can be done by col-
lecting the water formed, often by removing it as an azeotrope2
2Azeotrope is a mixture of two
or more liquids that exhibit ei-
ther a maximum or minimum
in vapour pressure as a function
of composition. One implica-
tion of this, is that water can be
removed as an azeotrope with
benzene at 69.3oC (mole frac-
tion of water in the azeotrope is
∼ 0.3).
.
Now, to address the first question regarding the length of the chain
or the molecular weight of the polymer formed, we must first rec-
ognize that each time a reaction between a carboxylic acid and
an alcohol occurs, a linkage between the fragments is generated
and as a result, the total number of molecules in the reaction flask
is reduced by 1 (neglect the condensate: water). Suppose we be-
gin with NA/2 molecules of the dicarboxylic acid (AA) and NB/2
molecules of the diol (BB), then the total number of carboxylic
acid and alcohol groups in the reaction mixture would be NA and
NB, respectively; since each of the molecules have two functional
groups. Thus, at a fractional conversion p, the number of car-
boxylic acid groups (A groups) that have reacted would be pNA
(this number will be same as the number of alcohol groups that
has reacted, since the carboxylic acid can only react with the al-
cohol). Now, since each time an ester formation occurs, the total
number of molecules in the reaction mixture reduces by 1, at con-
version p, the total number of molecules remaining equals,
NA/2 + NB/2 − pNA. (1)
In the case where equal moles of AA and BB type molecules are
taken, the total number molecules at the beginning will be,
NA/2 + NB/2 = NA; as NA/2 = NB/2. (2)
Now, as depicted in Figure 2, the average number of repeat units3
3Repeat unit is the smallest
molecular segment required to
represent the polymer chain.
,
n, which is also often referred to as the ‘degree of polymeriza-
tion’ (DP), can be estimated by simply addressing the following
358 RESONANCE | April 2017
GENERAL ARTICLE
question: Suppose, we took 50
molecules of each
monomer to begin with,
and after some linkages
between them have
occurred, there are only
10 molecules in the
flask, what would be the
average degree of
polymerization?
Suppose, we took 50 molecules of each monomer to
begin with, and after some linkages between them have occurred,
there are only 10 molecules in the flask, what would be the aver-
age degree of polymerization? The answer is obvious – it would
be the total number of molecules one started with, divided by
the number of molecules remaining; which is (50 +50)/10 = 10.
This means, on an average, each polymer chain would have 10
monomer units in them; in this case 5 each of the diacid and diol
fragments. This implies, as represented in Figure 2, n will be 5.
(Remember: in the case of AA + BB type condensations, DP =
2n)
Following this line of argument, the general formula for DP can
be derived from the expressions (1) and (2),
DP = (Total number of molecules taken)/
(Number of molecules left at conversion p)
= (NA/2 + NB/2)/(NA/2 + NB/2 − pNA)
= NA/(NA − pNA) = 1/(1 − p). (3)
DP = 1/(1-p) is the well-known ‘Carothers equation’ that de-
scribes the variation of the average degree of polymerization as
a function of conversion. From the arguments used to derive this
expression, it is clear that it is valid only when equal moles of AA
and BB are taken; i.e., there is stoichiometric balance. A plot of
the variation of molecular weight with conversion for step-growth
polymerization is shown in Figure A (Box 1); it is also compared
with simple chain-growth polymerizations. The Carothers equation,
which is rigorously
obeyed by most
polycondensations, is
remarkable for its
simplicity but it imposes
certain very strict
conditions for a bond
forming reaction to be
useful for the
preparation of polymers.
Only Some Condensation Reactions are Useful for Polymer
Formation
The Carothers equation, which is rigorously obeyed by most poly-
condensations, is remarkable for its simplicity but it imposes cer-
tain very strict conditions for a bond forming reaction to be useful
for the preparation of polymers. These are:
(a) Polycondensation reactions must be rapid and must proceed
to very high conversions.
RESONANCE | April 2017 359
GENERAL ARTICLE
Box 1. Step-Growth vs. Chain-Growth Polymerization.
Polymers can be prepared by two processes; one is step-growth and the other is chain-growth polymer-
ization. In chain-growth polymerizations, an initiator, like a free-radical, reacts with monomers that carry
a reactive double bond, such as in ethylene. The process of monomer addition is a chain-reaction. Once
initiated, many such addition reactions occur resulting in the enchainment of numerous ethylene units to
generate a long polymer chain. This process of monomer addition to the reactive chain end continues
till an event that terminates the chain-growth occurs. The molecular weight development as a function of
conversion for such a process is shown in the plot. Typically, free-radical chain polymerizations generate
high molecular weight polymers rapidly by enchaining a very large number (100 to 1000) of monomers
every second. Each growing polymer radical has a fairly short life time (< 1 minute), and hence fairly
high molecular weight polymers are formed right from the beginning of polymerization as seen in the plot.
As conversion (here, p would be the fraction of monomer transformed to polymer) increases, additional
polymer chains are formed; all growing chains, on an average, have the same life time, and therefore the
average molecular weight does not vary much with conversion, p. This is the crucial difference between
step-growth and chain-growth polymerizations, as evident from the plot depicting the variation of molecular
weight versus p. Majority of commercial polymers are in fact prepared by chain-growth polymerizations
– a few important examples are polyethylene, polypropylene, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polystyrene (sty-
rofoam), etc. Just polyethylene and polypropylene account for over 50 % of the total plastics produced
worldwide!
Figure A. Plot showing the variation of molecular weight as a function of fractional conversion (p) for
simple step-growth and chain-growth polymerizations. As discussed, high molecular weight is formed
only at very high conversions in the case of step- growth polymerizations [curve depicts the variation: DP
= 1/(1-p)]. However, for simple chain polymerizations, high molecular weight polymer is formed even at
very low conversions. With increasing time, more monomers are converted to polymer without affecting
the overall average molecular weight of the polymer.
(b) There must not be any side-reactions; meaning alternate re-
action pathways must not occur.
360 RESONANCE | April 2017
GENERAL ARTICLE
(c) Polycondensations need to be carried out using very high pu-
rity monomers.
Because of these strict constraints, only few organic reactions
have been used commercially to prepare polymers via polycon-
densation or step-growth processes. Examples of these are poly-
esters, polyamides, polyimides, polyurethanes, polycarbonates,
and a few others. The functional group
reactivity is assumed to
be the same in all the
species, namely
monomer, dimer, trimer,
etc., and therefore, one
assumes a statistically
random probability for
the occurrence of
reaction between the
different species during
the polycondensation.
Step-growth polymerization is a more inclu-
sive term to describe such processes because not all processes
that follow such growth kinetics need to be based on a condensa-
tion reaction; for instance, the preparation of polyurethanes from
a di-isocyanate and a diol proceeds without the formation of a
condensate (see Box 2).
A high yielding reaction in the context of simple organic reac-
tions would be those that go to over 90% conversions. However,
a quick look at the Carothers equation, would immediately re-
veal that at a conversion of 90% (i.e., p = 0.9) the DP of the
RESONANCE | April 2017 361
GENERAL ARTICLE
polymer would be only 10! This represents a very low molecu-
lar weight polymer. In the case of poly(hexamethylene adipate),
this would give a molecular weight of 228 × 5 = 1140 (Remem-
ber: DP = 10, implies n = 5); 228 is the repeat unit (C12H20O4)
formula weight. Even at a conversion of 99%, the DP would be
100, which means the polymer molecular weight would be 11400
only! Driving organic reactions to conversions higher than 99%,
would need special efforts and reaction conditions. This makes
it amply evident as to why the first condition of rapid reaction
rates and high conversions is crucial for a polycondensation re-
action to be of commercial value. One might add that commer-
cial polymers, like polyethylene terephthalate (PET), nylons, etc.,
typically have molecular weights ranging from 10,000 to 50,000.
This clearly means that the conversions have to be driven to >
99%. It is important to recognize here that the formalism devel-
oped is based on one very vital assumption – the reactivity of each
of the functional group (A or B) in the monomer is independent
of the other. In other words, the reactivity of the functionality
in the monomer is not affected by whether the other functional
group has already reacted or not. Thus, as the reaction proceeds,
the functional group reactivity is assumed to be the same in all
the species, namely monomer, dimer, trimer, etc., and therefore,
one assumes a statistically random probability for the occurrence
of reaction between the different species.
In order to understand the importance of monomer purity, first, let
us examine what would happen if there is a stoichiometric imbal-
ance – meaning that the number of moles of AA and BB are not
equal. In an extreme case, if you were asked the question – what
would you expect will happen if 1 mole of adipic acid was reacted
with 2 moles of hexane diol? You would apply some intuitive
reasoning, and probably figure out that you would get a product
where both the acid groups of the diacid would be esterified to
give you a trimer. While this is broadly correct, in practice, one
would get a mixture of the trimer and some oligomers; the latter
is a term used for very low molecular weight polymers.
For a more formal understanding, let us designate the extent of
362 RESONANCE | April 2017
GENERAL ARTICLE
stoichiometric imbalance by a term r, which is the ratio of the
number of moles of the two monomers. Hence r = NB/NA, where
NB < NA, implies that 0 < r < 1.
Based on the earlier argument (3),
DP = (NA/2 + rNA/2)/(NA/2 + rNA/2 − pNA)
(here: NB is replaced by rNA)
= (1 + r)/(1 + r − 2rp) (4)
This modified expression reveals the important consequence of
stoichiometric imbalance. Note that this expression would re-
duce to the original one, when r = 1. Let us now examine the
case where there is 1 mole% imbalance, which means that r =
0.99. From the above expression, one can quickly estimate that
the DP at a conversion of 99%, would be 2.01/0.0498 ≈ 40. Re-
call that at 99% conversion, if the stoichiometry were balanced (r
= 1), then the expected DP is 100! Thus, even just 1 mole% im-
balance between the amounts of the two monomers would reduce
the molecular weight by a factor of more than two!
One of the possible origins of stoichiometric imbalance is im-
purity of the monomers. Any impurity, even those that do not
participate in any reaction (say, due to incomplete drying of the
monomer), would cause a stoichiometric imbalance and lead to a
substantial lowering of the polymer molecular weight. The same
argument can be readily extended to the presence of a mono-
functional impurity, i.e., the presence of a broken LEGO block
with only one ball/socket. The physical properties
of polymers are strongly
influenced by their
molecular weight, and
failure to achieve high
molecular weight is a
severe detriment to
achieving optimum
physical properties such
as, melt viscosity, tensile
strength, etc.
Since, a monofunctional impurity
would necessarily become a chain-end, it puts a lower limit on
the number of chains that would remain even at 100% conver-
sion, and consequently leads to a similar lowering of the molecu-
lar weight (as was done earlier, one can show that DP = (1 + r)/(1
+ r – p), where r is the mole-fraction of monofunctional impu-
rity; again if r = 0, the original formula is recovered). Thus, the
presence of either a monofunctional impurity or stoichiometric
imbalance leads to a dramatic decrease in the molecular weight
of the polymer formed. Since the physical properties of poly-
RESONANCE | April 2017 363
GENERAL ARTICLE
mers are strongly influenced by their
One interesting feature
that you will observe in
the case of
hyperbranched structures
is that the
polycondensation
process will always lead
to a polymer that
contains a single socket
(A group) and numerous
balls (B groups).
molecular weight, failure
to achieve high molecular weight is a severe detriment to achiev-
ing optimum physical properties such as, melt viscosity, tensile
strength, etc. Similarly, side reactions could often lead to either
the lowering of molecular weight due to loss of functionality or to
the formation of cross-linked products, if side reactions provide
alternate pathways for bond-formation.
Let us now return to the other question I posed earlier, concerning
the nature of the products that would be formed when more com-
plex building blocks, carrying more than two functional groups
each, are allowed to react with each other (Figure 1). Specifi-
cally, what would happen when either AB2 or A2B2 type building
blocks are used. If you begin linking the blocks together, you
will realize that AB2 type monomers will grow to form highly
branched tree-like structures that are called hyperbranched poly-
mers, as depicted in Figure 3. These polymers are readily solu-
ble in solvents but typically exhibit very poor mechanical proper-
ties, when compared to their linear analogues because of the ab-
sence of a very important topological feature, namely ‘chain en-
tanglements’. Long linear polymer chains are typically entangled
in melt, which is reminiscent of an entangled bundle of thread
that we often encounter, and could become a rather frustrating
task to disentangle. Bulk polymers possess such chain entangle-
ments that in a sense become physical (mechanical) linkages be-
tween the different chains, and consequently are responsible for
their mechanical properties. Because of their highly branched na-
ture (and short chain segments between branching points), hyper-
branched polymers do not entangle and hence exhibit very poor
mechanical properties. However, one interesting feature that you
will observe in the case of hyperbranched structures is that the
polycondensation process will always lead to a polymer that con-
tains a single socket (A group) and numerous balls (B groups). In
fact, the number of balls is expected be DP + 1, where DP (degree
of polymerization) is the number of AB2 molecules that are linked
together to form the chain (of course, in the absence of intra-
molecular cyclization). Flory, [2] in fact was the first to postulate
364 RESONANCE | April 2017
GENERAL ARTICLE
that AB2 type monomers would give highly branched yet soluble
polymers and derived the statistical formulation to describe the
development of molecular weight, and molecular weight distri-
bution as a function of conversion p. However, it was only after
about 40 years that the first study of such hyperbranched poly-
mers was reported [3]. Some of the unique characteristics of hy-
perbranched polymers that have made them a subject of intense
study during the past two decades are:
a) They exhibit very low melt and solution viscosity because they
are very compact structures (occupy far less volume than their
linear analogues) and,
b) They possess a large number of peripheral functional groups
(balls decorate the periphery of these structures) that can be suit-
ably transformed to modulate their solubility characteristics.
For instance, you can transform a fairly hydrophobic4 4A dislike for water.
polymer
into a water soluble one by suitably transforming the peripheral
groups alone [3]!
Now, in the case of the A2B2 type of molecules, the result is very
different; as shown in Figure 3, a random network structure will
be formed. Polymers that are formed by such a process are called
cross-linked polymers, and cannot be dissolved in any solvent nor
can they be melted, unlike simple linear polymers. Using very
similar arguments as presented earlier (under some assumptions
for simplification), the evolution of molecular Polymerizing mixtures
can readily be
transformed to
cross-linked gels either
due to inadvertent
presence of
polyfunctional
impurities or even if
there are side reactions
that provide alternate
pathways for bond
formation.
weight or DP with
conversion p, can be shown to vary as [4]: DP = 2/(2-p fav); where
fav is the average functionality of the monomers.
Here again, if one gives fav a value of 2, the original Carothers
equation is retrieved. This expression reveals something very in-
teresting – when p = 2/ fav, the denominator goes to zero and the
DP will become infinity! This point is called the ‘gel-point’. It
implies that at this conversion, all the molecules in the reaction
mixture have become connected to each other and the entire mass
has become a single giant molecule! (Remember: at 100 % con-
version (p = 1), even in the simple case, the DP will become
RESONANCE | April 2017 365
GENERAL ARTICLE
Figure 3. Structures
formed by polyconden-
sation of polyfunctional
monomers. In the case
of AB2 self-condensation,
high molecular weight
hyperbranched polymers
would be formed. As they
grow in size, these would
adopt a compact pseudo-
spherical structure that
would carry a large number
of balls (B-type functional
groups) on their molecular
periphery. On the other
hand, A2B2 type monomers
would lead to an insolu-
ble, highly cross-linked
product. Topologically
cross-linked structures
would contain several ring
subunits because of the
presence of a large number
of both A and B type
functionality that could
react intra-molecularly,
whereas a hyperbranched
polymer could have at the
most a single ring because
a growing chain, at any
time, can have only a single
A-type functional group!
infinite. This is a trivial case, since 100 % conversion is impossi-
ble to achieve!). The average functionality fav is calculated read-
ily by estimating the total moles of functional groups in all the
monomers together and dividing it by the total number of moles
of the monomer(s). Cross-linked polymers can also be prepared
by adding a small amount of a polyfunctional monomer, such as
B3 or A3, to simple AA + BB type polycondensations. Using the
formula, one can estimate the conversion at which a polyconden-
sation will lead to gelation or cross-linking. For instance, if the
average functionality fav = 2.1, then at p =2/2.1 ∼ 95%, the sys-
tem will gel. Such conversions are readily attained, and so poly-
merizing mixtures can readily be transformed to cross-linked gels
either due to inadvertent presence of polyfunctional impurities or
even if there are side reactions that provide alternate pathways
for bond formation (which will lead to an apparent increase in
fav). Once gelation happens, it is obvious why such polymers can
neither be dissolved nor melted. Commonly, such cross-linked
polymers are also referred to as thermosetting polymers. Here,
366 RESONANCE | April 2017
GENERAL ARTICLE
Proteins, DNA and RNA
– molecules of life, are
all long-chain molecules,
which are sequence
regulated with different
types of repeat units
arranged in a specific
sequence along the
backbone.
often low molecular weight precursors are allowed to react fur-
ther to form such cross-linked polymers in the required shape or
size – ‘Bakelite’ made from phenol and formaldehyde is an ex-
ample of such a cross-linked polymer. In the case of Bakelite,
phenol can be viewed as having a functionality of at least 3 (or
5, if the meta sites also undergo electrophilic substitution), while
formaldehyde has a functionality of 2. To understand this fur-
ther, you may refer to the polymerization process leading to the
formation of phenol-formaldehyde resins [4].
Just over 100 years ago, a majority of the scientific community
did not believe that long chain-like molecules, namely polymers,
really exist. It was only by first demonstrating their preparation in
a controlled fashion by Carothers and Staudinger [5] using sim-
ple, well-known organic reactions that it was possible to convince
the naysayers. Today, we recognize that polymers are essential to
life itself. Proteins, DNA and RNA, considered to be molecules
of life, are all long-chain molecules. Although, they are very dif-
ferent from synthetic polymers in the sense that they are sequence
regulated; meaning that they contain different types of monomers
(or repeat units) arranged along a backbone in a specific sequence,
which is crucial to their extraordinary functions. One might add
that all these biopolymers are also prepared by a condensation
or step-growth process often starting from individual monomers.
But instead of allowing them to form via a random process, they
are enchained by carefully selecting the specific monomer one at
a time in a pseudo chain-growth process. The secret of Nature
is that it uses a third component – often a template, to effect the
polycondensation by first binding, and then adding one monomer
at a time to the growing polymer chain. Therefore, Nature is not
burdened by random statistical probabilities, which a poor syn-
thetic chemist has to contend with!
Acknowledgement
I would like to thank Ms Saheli Chakraborty for help with some
of the figures.
RESONANCE | April 2017 367
GENERAL ARTICLE
Suggested Reading
[1] W H Carothers, Chem. Rev., Vol.8, p.353, 1931.
[2] P J Flory, J. Am. Chem. Soc., Vol.74, p.2718, 1952.
Address for Correspondence
S Ramakrishnan
Department of Inorganic and
Physical Chemistry
Indian Institute of Science
Bangalore 560 012, India.
Email:
raman@ipc.iisc.ernet.in
[3] Y H Kim and O W Webster, J Am Chem. Soc., Vol.112, p.4592, 1990.
[4] Principles of Polymerization by George Odian, 4th Edition, Wiley-Interscience,
2004.
[5] H Staudinger, Trans. Faraday Soc., Vol.32, No.97, 1936, This entire issue of the
Transactions of the Faraday Society carries a remarkable collection of articles,
which is an outcome of the Discussions of the Faraday Society on The Phenom-
ena of Polymerization and Condensations.
368 RESONANCE | April 2017

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RESONANCE April 2017.pdf

  • 1. GENERAL ARTICLE Condensation Polymerization S Ramakrishnan S Ramakrishnan is a professor in the Department of Inorganic and Physical Chemistry at the Indian Institute of Science. His research group works towards exploring new strategies to develop polymers that can self-segregate, fold, and organize into sub-10 nm size microphase separated morphologies; in addition, they work on hyperbranched polymers and 2D polymers. The very idea that large polymer molecules can indeed ex- ist was hotly debated during the early part of the 20th cen- tury. As highlighted by Sivaram in his articles on Carothers and Flory, Staudinger’s macromolecular hypothesis was fi- nally accepted, and the study of polymers gained momentum because of the remarkable efforts of the these two individuals who laid down the foundations concerning the processes that led to the formation of large polymer molecules, and to those that led to an understanding of many of their extraordinary physical properties. Condensation polymerizations, as the name suggests, utilizes bond-forming reactions that generate a small molecule condensate, which often needs to be contin- uously removed to facilitate the formation of the polymer. In this article, I shall describe some of the essential principles of condensation polymerizations or more appropriately called step-growth polymerizations; and I will also describe some interesting extensions that lead to the formation of polymer networks and highly branched polymers. All of us learn about organic chemical reactions in high school and college; we are taught about many types of chemical reac- tions, like addition, eliminations, hydrolysis, oxidation, esterifi- cation, etc. Of these reactions, some of them, like the reaction between a carboxylic acid and an alcohol, results in the linking of two different molecular fragments; in this case, the acid and alco- hol fragments are linked via an ester linkage. There are numerous other chemical reactions that result in such linking of two molec- ular fragments. All such reactions, in principle, could be poten- Keywords Polymers, polycondensation, polyester, chain-growth, step- growth, degree of polymerization, gel-point, polymer networks, hyperbranched polymers. tially useful to prepare long-chain polymer molecules. However, only a few among these are actually useful to prepare polymers. In this article, I will explain what it takes for a chemical reaction, to find a place in this unique league of reactions. RESONANCE | April 2017 355
  • 2. GENERAL ARTICLE How are Polymers Really Formed? At first, let us begin by treating molecules as LEGO-type building blocks with certain strict rules for linking them; a ball can readily fit with a socket, whereas, neither two balls nor two sockets can stick together (Figure 1). It is evident that blocks carrying a ball and a socket would string together to form a long chain. Similarly, if we begin with blocks carrying two sockets and those carrying two balls, these too would form long chains. We also recognize that there should be nothing that prevents the ball at one end of a chain linking up with the socket at the other to form a ring! This would, of course, very much depend on the flexibility of the chain formed; clearly, stiff rod-like chains will find it more difficult to form rings. The pro- cess of linking a large number of small molecules, akin to the building blocks, is essentially the process of polycondensation or step-growth polymerization. Before we leave this LEGO-style discussion, I would leave you with two alternate scenarios; one is to use building blocks bearing two sockets and two balls, as de- picted in the figure, and the other is to use blocks that contain two balls but only one socket! What would be the possible outcome in these two cases? Try this out on your own; we will return to such possibilities later in the article. Figure 1. Ball and socket depiction of the polyconden- sation process. Either a single building block bear- ing a ball and a socket (AB) or two different build- ing blocks, each bearing two balls (BB) or two sockets (AA), can link to form lin- ear chains. Rings could also be formed during such pro- cesses by the ball at one end of the chain linking with the socket at the other. Two other types of build- ing blocks are also shown, which would lead to other interesting structures, which will be discussed later. 356 RESONANCE | April 2017
  • 3. GENERAL ARTICLE Figure 2. Example of a polycondensation process between a dicarboxylic acid and a diol to form a polyester. Now, Some Real Chemistry! Having described a simple conceptual framework for the forma- tion of polymers starting from suitable building blocks, let us look at some real cases. First, we examine the simplest case of the re- action of a dicarboxylic acid, like adipic acid, and a diol, like 1,6-hexane diol (Figure 2). Each of these molecules would be considered to have a functionality of 2, implying that each carry two reaction sites and therefore both are bifunctional. Under acid- catalysed conditions, this should lead to the formation of a long chain polyester by a process termed as polycondensation – ‘poly’ implying that several such events occur, and ‘condensation’ im- plies that there is a condensate that is formed. The condensate formed in this case, as you would have guessed, is H2O. Such re- actions would be classified as AA + BB type condensation, anal- ogous to connecting blocks with two balls and those with two sockets1 1 Remember: we start with a very large number of such molecules, and many reactions occur simultaneously and ran- domly between any carboxylic acid and alcohol group. . Carothers posed some fairly simple questions about such polycondensations [1]: a) How does the average length of the chain vary with the number of ball-socket connections that have been made? b) What if some of the blocks are broken and contain only one ball instead of two; what would be the effect of having such blocks on the average length of the chain? c) What if a few blocks have three balls instead of two? Before we take this up, let us define a few terms. Fractional con- version, p is a term that describes the extent to which the reaction RESONANCE | April 2017 357
  • 4. GENERAL ARTICLE has occurred, which in the above example would be the fraction of carboxylic acid groups that has reacted to form an ester. In the building block analogy, p would be the fraction of balls that have been fixed to sockets. In the case of polyester formation, one way to estimate p would be to determine the residual carboxylic acid concentration (or acid number) by titration – this is often done in the industry in order to follow the progress of such polyconden- sation processes. An alternate approach would be to measure the amount of the condensate, H2O, formed; this can be done by col- lecting the water formed, often by removing it as an azeotrope2 2Azeotrope is a mixture of two or more liquids that exhibit ei- ther a maximum or minimum in vapour pressure as a function of composition. One implica- tion of this, is that water can be removed as an azeotrope with benzene at 69.3oC (mole frac- tion of water in the azeotrope is ∼ 0.3). . Now, to address the first question regarding the length of the chain or the molecular weight of the polymer formed, we must first rec- ognize that each time a reaction between a carboxylic acid and an alcohol occurs, a linkage between the fragments is generated and as a result, the total number of molecules in the reaction flask is reduced by 1 (neglect the condensate: water). Suppose we be- gin with NA/2 molecules of the dicarboxylic acid (AA) and NB/2 molecules of the diol (BB), then the total number of carboxylic acid and alcohol groups in the reaction mixture would be NA and NB, respectively; since each of the molecules have two functional groups. Thus, at a fractional conversion p, the number of car- boxylic acid groups (A groups) that have reacted would be pNA (this number will be same as the number of alcohol groups that has reacted, since the carboxylic acid can only react with the al- cohol). Now, since each time an ester formation occurs, the total number of molecules in the reaction mixture reduces by 1, at con- version p, the total number of molecules remaining equals, NA/2 + NB/2 − pNA. (1) In the case where equal moles of AA and BB type molecules are taken, the total number molecules at the beginning will be, NA/2 + NB/2 = NA; as NA/2 = NB/2. (2) Now, as depicted in Figure 2, the average number of repeat units3 3Repeat unit is the smallest molecular segment required to represent the polymer chain. , n, which is also often referred to as the ‘degree of polymeriza- tion’ (DP), can be estimated by simply addressing the following 358 RESONANCE | April 2017
  • 5. GENERAL ARTICLE question: Suppose, we took 50 molecules of each monomer to begin with, and after some linkages between them have occurred, there are only 10 molecules in the flask, what would be the average degree of polymerization? Suppose, we took 50 molecules of each monomer to begin with, and after some linkages between them have occurred, there are only 10 molecules in the flask, what would be the aver- age degree of polymerization? The answer is obvious – it would be the total number of molecules one started with, divided by the number of molecules remaining; which is (50 +50)/10 = 10. This means, on an average, each polymer chain would have 10 monomer units in them; in this case 5 each of the diacid and diol fragments. This implies, as represented in Figure 2, n will be 5. (Remember: in the case of AA + BB type condensations, DP = 2n) Following this line of argument, the general formula for DP can be derived from the expressions (1) and (2), DP = (Total number of molecules taken)/ (Number of molecules left at conversion p) = (NA/2 + NB/2)/(NA/2 + NB/2 − pNA) = NA/(NA − pNA) = 1/(1 − p). (3) DP = 1/(1-p) is the well-known ‘Carothers equation’ that de- scribes the variation of the average degree of polymerization as a function of conversion. From the arguments used to derive this expression, it is clear that it is valid only when equal moles of AA and BB are taken; i.e., there is stoichiometric balance. A plot of the variation of molecular weight with conversion for step-growth polymerization is shown in Figure A (Box 1); it is also compared with simple chain-growth polymerizations. The Carothers equation, which is rigorously obeyed by most polycondensations, is remarkable for its simplicity but it imposes certain very strict conditions for a bond forming reaction to be useful for the preparation of polymers. Only Some Condensation Reactions are Useful for Polymer Formation The Carothers equation, which is rigorously obeyed by most poly- condensations, is remarkable for its simplicity but it imposes cer- tain very strict conditions for a bond forming reaction to be useful for the preparation of polymers. These are: (a) Polycondensation reactions must be rapid and must proceed to very high conversions. RESONANCE | April 2017 359
  • 6. GENERAL ARTICLE Box 1. Step-Growth vs. Chain-Growth Polymerization. Polymers can be prepared by two processes; one is step-growth and the other is chain-growth polymer- ization. In chain-growth polymerizations, an initiator, like a free-radical, reacts with monomers that carry a reactive double bond, such as in ethylene. The process of monomer addition is a chain-reaction. Once initiated, many such addition reactions occur resulting in the enchainment of numerous ethylene units to generate a long polymer chain. This process of monomer addition to the reactive chain end continues till an event that terminates the chain-growth occurs. The molecular weight development as a function of conversion for such a process is shown in the plot. Typically, free-radical chain polymerizations generate high molecular weight polymers rapidly by enchaining a very large number (100 to 1000) of monomers every second. Each growing polymer radical has a fairly short life time (< 1 minute), and hence fairly high molecular weight polymers are formed right from the beginning of polymerization as seen in the plot. As conversion (here, p would be the fraction of monomer transformed to polymer) increases, additional polymer chains are formed; all growing chains, on an average, have the same life time, and therefore the average molecular weight does not vary much with conversion, p. This is the crucial difference between step-growth and chain-growth polymerizations, as evident from the plot depicting the variation of molecular weight versus p. Majority of commercial polymers are in fact prepared by chain-growth polymerizations – a few important examples are polyethylene, polypropylene, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polystyrene (sty- rofoam), etc. Just polyethylene and polypropylene account for over 50 % of the total plastics produced worldwide! Figure A. Plot showing the variation of molecular weight as a function of fractional conversion (p) for simple step-growth and chain-growth polymerizations. As discussed, high molecular weight is formed only at very high conversions in the case of step- growth polymerizations [curve depicts the variation: DP = 1/(1-p)]. However, for simple chain polymerizations, high molecular weight polymer is formed even at very low conversions. With increasing time, more monomers are converted to polymer without affecting the overall average molecular weight of the polymer. (b) There must not be any side-reactions; meaning alternate re- action pathways must not occur. 360 RESONANCE | April 2017
  • 7. GENERAL ARTICLE (c) Polycondensations need to be carried out using very high pu- rity monomers. Because of these strict constraints, only few organic reactions have been used commercially to prepare polymers via polycon- densation or step-growth processes. Examples of these are poly- esters, polyamides, polyimides, polyurethanes, polycarbonates, and a few others. The functional group reactivity is assumed to be the same in all the species, namely monomer, dimer, trimer, etc., and therefore, one assumes a statistically random probability for the occurrence of reaction between the different species during the polycondensation. Step-growth polymerization is a more inclu- sive term to describe such processes because not all processes that follow such growth kinetics need to be based on a condensa- tion reaction; for instance, the preparation of polyurethanes from a di-isocyanate and a diol proceeds without the formation of a condensate (see Box 2). A high yielding reaction in the context of simple organic reac- tions would be those that go to over 90% conversions. However, a quick look at the Carothers equation, would immediately re- veal that at a conversion of 90% (i.e., p = 0.9) the DP of the RESONANCE | April 2017 361
  • 8. GENERAL ARTICLE polymer would be only 10! This represents a very low molecu- lar weight polymer. In the case of poly(hexamethylene adipate), this would give a molecular weight of 228 × 5 = 1140 (Remem- ber: DP = 10, implies n = 5); 228 is the repeat unit (C12H20O4) formula weight. Even at a conversion of 99%, the DP would be 100, which means the polymer molecular weight would be 11400 only! Driving organic reactions to conversions higher than 99%, would need special efforts and reaction conditions. This makes it amply evident as to why the first condition of rapid reaction rates and high conversions is crucial for a polycondensation re- action to be of commercial value. One might add that commer- cial polymers, like polyethylene terephthalate (PET), nylons, etc., typically have molecular weights ranging from 10,000 to 50,000. This clearly means that the conversions have to be driven to > 99%. It is important to recognize here that the formalism devel- oped is based on one very vital assumption – the reactivity of each of the functional group (A or B) in the monomer is independent of the other. In other words, the reactivity of the functionality in the monomer is not affected by whether the other functional group has already reacted or not. Thus, as the reaction proceeds, the functional group reactivity is assumed to be the same in all the species, namely monomer, dimer, trimer, etc., and therefore, one assumes a statistically random probability for the occurrence of reaction between the different species. In order to understand the importance of monomer purity, first, let us examine what would happen if there is a stoichiometric imbal- ance – meaning that the number of moles of AA and BB are not equal. In an extreme case, if you were asked the question – what would you expect will happen if 1 mole of adipic acid was reacted with 2 moles of hexane diol? You would apply some intuitive reasoning, and probably figure out that you would get a product where both the acid groups of the diacid would be esterified to give you a trimer. While this is broadly correct, in practice, one would get a mixture of the trimer and some oligomers; the latter is a term used for very low molecular weight polymers. For a more formal understanding, let us designate the extent of 362 RESONANCE | April 2017
  • 9. GENERAL ARTICLE stoichiometric imbalance by a term r, which is the ratio of the number of moles of the two monomers. Hence r = NB/NA, where NB < NA, implies that 0 < r < 1. Based on the earlier argument (3), DP = (NA/2 + rNA/2)/(NA/2 + rNA/2 − pNA) (here: NB is replaced by rNA) = (1 + r)/(1 + r − 2rp) (4) This modified expression reveals the important consequence of stoichiometric imbalance. Note that this expression would re- duce to the original one, when r = 1. Let us now examine the case where there is 1 mole% imbalance, which means that r = 0.99. From the above expression, one can quickly estimate that the DP at a conversion of 99%, would be 2.01/0.0498 ≈ 40. Re- call that at 99% conversion, if the stoichiometry were balanced (r = 1), then the expected DP is 100! Thus, even just 1 mole% im- balance between the amounts of the two monomers would reduce the molecular weight by a factor of more than two! One of the possible origins of stoichiometric imbalance is im- purity of the monomers. Any impurity, even those that do not participate in any reaction (say, due to incomplete drying of the monomer), would cause a stoichiometric imbalance and lead to a substantial lowering of the polymer molecular weight. The same argument can be readily extended to the presence of a mono- functional impurity, i.e., the presence of a broken LEGO block with only one ball/socket. The physical properties of polymers are strongly influenced by their molecular weight, and failure to achieve high molecular weight is a severe detriment to achieving optimum physical properties such as, melt viscosity, tensile strength, etc. Since, a monofunctional impurity would necessarily become a chain-end, it puts a lower limit on the number of chains that would remain even at 100% conver- sion, and consequently leads to a similar lowering of the molecu- lar weight (as was done earlier, one can show that DP = (1 + r)/(1 + r – p), where r is the mole-fraction of monofunctional impu- rity; again if r = 0, the original formula is recovered). Thus, the presence of either a monofunctional impurity or stoichiometric imbalance leads to a dramatic decrease in the molecular weight of the polymer formed. Since the physical properties of poly- RESONANCE | April 2017 363
  • 10. GENERAL ARTICLE mers are strongly influenced by their One interesting feature that you will observe in the case of hyperbranched structures is that the polycondensation process will always lead to a polymer that contains a single socket (A group) and numerous balls (B groups). molecular weight, failure to achieve high molecular weight is a severe detriment to achiev- ing optimum physical properties such as, melt viscosity, tensile strength, etc. Similarly, side reactions could often lead to either the lowering of molecular weight due to loss of functionality or to the formation of cross-linked products, if side reactions provide alternate pathways for bond-formation. Let us now return to the other question I posed earlier, concerning the nature of the products that would be formed when more com- plex building blocks, carrying more than two functional groups each, are allowed to react with each other (Figure 1). Specifi- cally, what would happen when either AB2 or A2B2 type building blocks are used. If you begin linking the blocks together, you will realize that AB2 type monomers will grow to form highly branched tree-like structures that are called hyperbranched poly- mers, as depicted in Figure 3. These polymers are readily solu- ble in solvents but typically exhibit very poor mechanical proper- ties, when compared to their linear analogues because of the ab- sence of a very important topological feature, namely ‘chain en- tanglements’. Long linear polymer chains are typically entangled in melt, which is reminiscent of an entangled bundle of thread that we often encounter, and could become a rather frustrating task to disentangle. Bulk polymers possess such chain entangle- ments that in a sense become physical (mechanical) linkages be- tween the different chains, and consequently are responsible for their mechanical properties. Because of their highly branched na- ture (and short chain segments between branching points), hyper- branched polymers do not entangle and hence exhibit very poor mechanical properties. However, one interesting feature that you will observe in the case of hyperbranched structures is that the polycondensation process will always lead to a polymer that con- tains a single socket (A group) and numerous balls (B groups). In fact, the number of balls is expected be DP + 1, where DP (degree of polymerization) is the number of AB2 molecules that are linked together to form the chain (of course, in the absence of intra- molecular cyclization). Flory, [2] in fact was the first to postulate 364 RESONANCE | April 2017
  • 11. GENERAL ARTICLE that AB2 type monomers would give highly branched yet soluble polymers and derived the statistical formulation to describe the development of molecular weight, and molecular weight distri- bution as a function of conversion p. However, it was only after about 40 years that the first study of such hyperbranched poly- mers was reported [3]. Some of the unique characteristics of hy- perbranched polymers that have made them a subject of intense study during the past two decades are: a) They exhibit very low melt and solution viscosity because they are very compact structures (occupy far less volume than their linear analogues) and, b) They possess a large number of peripheral functional groups (balls decorate the periphery of these structures) that can be suit- ably transformed to modulate their solubility characteristics. For instance, you can transform a fairly hydrophobic4 4A dislike for water. polymer into a water soluble one by suitably transforming the peripheral groups alone [3]! Now, in the case of the A2B2 type of molecules, the result is very different; as shown in Figure 3, a random network structure will be formed. Polymers that are formed by such a process are called cross-linked polymers, and cannot be dissolved in any solvent nor can they be melted, unlike simple linear polymers. Using very similar arguments as presented earlier (under some assumptions for simplification), the evolution of molecular Polymerizing mixtures can readily be transformed to cross-linked gels either due to inadvertent presence of polyfunctional impurities or even if there are side reactions that provide alternate pathways for bond formation. weight or DP with conversion p, can be shown to vary as [4]: DP = 2/(2-p fav); where fav is the average functionality of the monomers. Here again, if one gives fav a value of 2, the original Carothers equation is retrieved. This expression reveals something very in- teresting – when p = 2/ fav, the denominator goes to zero and the DP will become infinity! This point is called the ‘gel-point’. It implies that at this conversion, all the molecules in the reaction mixture have become connected to each other and the entire mass has become a single giant molecule! (Remember: at 100 % con- version (p = 1), even in the simple case, the DP will become RESONANCE | April 2017 365
  • 12. GENERAL ARTICLE Figure 3. Structures formed by polyconden- sation of polyfunctional monomers. In the case of AB2 self-condensation, high molecular weight hyperbranched polymers would be formed. As they grow in size, these would adopt a compact pseudo- spherical structure that would carry a large number of balls (B-type functional groups) on their molecular periphery. On the other hand, A2B2 type monomers would lead to an insolu- ble, highly cross-linked product. Topologically cross-linked structures would contain several ring subunits because of the presence of a large number of both A and B type functionality that could react intra-molecularly, whereas a hyperbranched polymer could have at the most a single ring because a growing chain, at any time, can have only a single A-type functional group! infinite. This is a trivial case, since 100 % conversion is impossi- ble to achieve!). The average functionality fav is calculated read- ily by estimating the total moles of functional groups in all the monomers together and dividing it by the total number of moles of the monomer(s). Cross-linked polymers can also be prepared by adding a small amount of a polyfunctional monomer, such as B3 or A3, to simple AA + BB type polycondensations. Using the formula, one can estimate the conversion at which a polyconden- sation will lead to gelation or cross-linking. For instance, if the average functionality fav = 2.1, then at p =2/2.1 ∼ 95%, the sys- tem will gel. Such conversions are readily attained, and so poly- merizing mixtures can readily be transformed to cross-linked gels either due to inadvertent presence of polyfunctional impurities or even if there are side reactions that provide alternate pathways for bond formation (which will lead to an apparent increase in fav). Once gelation happens, it is obvious why such polymers can neither be dissolved nor melted. Commonly, such cross-linked polymers are also referred to as thermosetting polymers. Here, 366 RESONANCE | April 2017
  • 13. GENERAL ARTICLE Proteins, DNA and RNA – molecules of life, are all long-chain molecules, which are sequence regulated with different types of repeat units arranged in a specific sequence along the backbone. often low molecular weight precursors are allowed to react fur- ther to form such cross-linked polymers in the required shape or size – ‘Bakelite’ made from phenol and formaldehyde is an ex- ample of such a cross-linked polymer. In the case of Bakelite, phenol can be viewed as having a functionality of at least 3 (or 5, if the meta sites also undergo electrophilic substitution), while formaldehyde has a functionality of 2. To understand this fur- ther, you may refer to the polymerization process leading to the formation of phenol-formaldehyde resins [4]. Just over 100 years ago, a majority of the scientific community did not believe that long chain-like molecules, namely polymers, really exist. It was only by first demonstrating their preparation in a controlled fashion by Carothers and Staudinger [5] using sim- ple, well-known organic reactions that it was possible to convince the naysayers. Today, we recognize that polymers are essential to life itself. Proteins, DNA and RNA, considered to be molecules of life, are all long-chain molecules. Although, they are very dif- ferent from synthetic polymers in the sense that they are sequence regulated; meaning that they contain different types of monomers (or repeat units) arranged along a backbone in a specific sequence, which is crucial to their extraordinary functions. One might add that all these biopolymers are also prepared by a condensation or step-growth process often starting from individual monomers. But instead of allowing them to form via a random process, they are enchained by carefully selecting the specific monomer one at a time in a pseudo chain-growth process. The secret of Nature is that it uses a third component – often a template, to effect the polycondensation by first binding, and then adding one monomer at a time to the growing polymer chain. Therefore, Nature is not burdened by random statistical probabilities, which a poor syn- thetic chemist has to contend with! Acknowledgement I would like to thank Ms Saheli Chakraborty for help with some of the figures. RESONANCE | April 2017 367
  • 14. GENERAL ARTICLE Suggested Reading [1] W H Carothers, Chem. Rev., Vol.8, p.353, 1931. [2] P J Flory, J. Am. Chem. Soc., Vol.74, p.2718, 1952. Address for Correspondence S Ramakrishnan Department of Inorganic and Physical Chemistry Indian Institute of Science Bangalore 560 012, India. Email: raman@ipc.iisc.ernet.in [3] Y H Kim and O W Webster, J Am Chem. Soc., Vol.112, p.4592, 1990. [4] Principles of Polymerization by George Odian, 4th Edition, Wiley-Interscience, 2004. [5] H Staudinger, Trans. Faraday Soc., Vol.32, No.97, 1936, This entire issue of the Transactions of the Faraday Society carries a remarkable collection of articles, which is an outcome of the Discussions of the Faraday Society on The Phenom- ena of Polymerization and Condensations. 368 RESONANCE | April 2017