CHAPTER 23 - INTRINSIC PROPERTIES IN RETROSPECT

Abstract

All important intrinsic properties depend in essence on two fundamental characteristics of polymers: the chemical structure of their repeating units and their molecular-mass-distribution pattern. The latter is of major importance for those cases where the molecular translational mobility is developed, that is, for polymer properties in melts and solutions. The molecular structure is reflected in all the properties; ample use has been made of the empirical fact that many intrinsic quantities or combinations of quantities, if related to the structural molar unit, have additive properties so that these quantities can be estimated in a simple manner from empirically derived group contributions or increments. The reduced intrinsic quantities in turn are the functions of dimensionless process variables. If these functional correlations are known, every value of the required intrinsic quantity under arbitrary experimental conditions can be estimated. In this procedure, the systems of dynamic dimensionless quantities may be of great help.