Polymers have for long been a fundamental piece of our everyday lives so much so that examples can be found almost ubiquitously. We generally have an impact leading us to trust that polymers are only plastics used for packaging, in household objects as well as for making fibres, but this is the tip from the iceberg.


Polymers are employed in many applications you may not have thought much about. This blog enlightens you about the story behind polymers and the way it has evolved from the time to offer several functions across a host of industries.
Origin of polymer science
Humans have got good thing about the versatility of polymers since way back when as oils, tars, resins and gums. However, it had not been prior to the industrial revolution that the polymer industry started to realize. In fact, the birth of polymer science may be traced returning to the mid-nineteenth century. Inside the 1830s, Charles Goodyear developed the vulcanization procedure that transformed the sticky latex of natural rubber right into a useful elastomer for tire use. In 1909, Leo Hendrik Baekeland created a resin from two common chemicals, phenol and formaldehyde. The reaction between these chemicals led the way to add mass to a resin, called Bakelite, named after him. It had been this resin that served as a harbinger to numerous from the common polymers that people use today. The phrase “polymer” hails from the Greek roots “poly” and “mer,” which assembled means “many parts.” Polymeric substances are composed of countless chemical units called monomers, that happen to be gathered into large molecular chains consisting of thousands of atoms.
Classification of polymers
On such basis as their origin, pmma thermoplastic might be considered natural or synthetic polymers. Natural polymers are the ones polymers that occur in nature and that that happen to be isolated from plant and animal resources. Starch, cellulose, proteins, natural rubber etc. are a few samples of natural polymers. Though they are processed to have the end product, considering that the basic material develops from a natural source, these polymers are referred to as natural polymers. Natural rubber received from tree latex it’s essentially a polymer made from isoprene units using a small percentage of impurities inside it.
On this context, biopolymers will also be significant. There is large number of biopolymers such as polysaccharides, polyesters, and polyamides. They are naturally manufactured by microorganisms. The genetic manipulation of microorganisms makes method for enormous potential for the biotechnological manufacture of biopolymers with tailored properties ideal for high-value medical application such as tissue engineering and drug delivery.
Synthetic polymers, for their name indicates, are synthesized inside the laboratory or factory via a group of chemical reactions from low molecular weight compounds. From the functional viewpoint they may be classified into four main categories: thermoplastics, thermosets, elastomers and synthetic fibres. Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) is a such thermoplastic manufactured by the polymerization from the monomer, methyl methacrylate (MMA). PMMA is commonly known as acrylic plastic and lends its properties to some selection of consumer product applications. Being both a thermoplastic and transparent plastic, acrylic is employed extensively inside the automotive industry in trunk release handles, master cylinder, and dashboard lighting. Consumer products which possess a constituent part of acrylic plastic include aquariums, motorcycle helmet lenses, paint, furniture, picture framing, and umbrella clamps, and the like.
Many of the other synthetic polymers that people use in us include Nylons, found in fabrics and textiles, Teflon, found in non-stick pans and Polyvinyl Chloride, found in pipes.
As a leading manufacturer of SUMIPEX® PMMA polymer, Sumitomo Chemical is satisfied to help you in understanding its properties as a synthetic polymer. To understand more, reach out to us here.
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