Physical Properties

There are two key reasons for the importance of polymers as engineering materials. First and most
obviously, polymers offer physical properties such as strength and elasticity that can be desirable in a
wide range of uses. Second, those properties can be controlled or tailored to a greater degree than is
usually possible in metals or other classes of materials. Through the choice of a particular polymer and
the details of its synthesis and processing, materials engineers can choose the properties they need
with a striking degree of specificity. In this section, we will look at a few examples of the types of
choices that can be made. We begin by considering the thermal properties of polymers. In choosing a
polymer
for a specifi c design, you would obviously need to make sure that your finished object will be suitable
for the temperature range in which it will be used. But an experienced engineer will also recognize the
need to think about the way the object will be manufactured. Many plastic components are formed at
high temperatures, and different polymers respond in dramatically different ways to heat. Polymers are
often divided into two broad categories: thermoplastic and thermosetting. Thermoplastic polymers
melt or deform on heating. This may seem like a weakness because it means that they are not suitable
for high temperature applications. But a great many plastic objects, including children’s toys and bottles
of many sorts, are generally used at ambient temperatures. So, the fact that they would melt if heated
appreciably is not a major drawback. When we think about how to make these objects, which can come
in rather complicated shapes, the ability to melt the polymer at reasonable temperatures becomes a
major advantage. Depending on their complexity, products made from thermoplastic polymers are
typically extruded or formed in molds or presses. The fact that the material softens or melts when
heated allows shaping it into the desired form. Once cooled, the polymer solidifies and regains its
structural properties. If we are trying to design an object that might need to be used at higher
temperatures though, the fact that thermoplastics soften and melt will make such materials a poor
choice. Instead we might turn to thermosetting polymers, which can maintain their shape and
strength when heated. The name “thermosetting” comes from the fact that these polymers must be
heated to set or “lock in” their structures. But once this has been done, the materials offer increased
strength and do not lose their shape upon further heating. Rather than being extruded, most
thermosetting polymers are molded The initial heating and setting of a thermosetting polymer
produces a number of links between sites on the crosslinks because they cross between and link
individual molecular strands of the polymer. Chemically, these cross-links are additional covalent bonds
that join the polymer chains to one another. Like most covalent bonds, they are strong enough that
they do not readily fail upon heating. So the cross-linked polymer keeps its shape .An important
example of the engineering importance of cross-linking in American industrial history is the discovery of
vulcanization. In vulcanization, natural rubber is heated in the presence of sulfur. This produces cross-
linking and leads to a harder material that is markedly more resistant to heat. Until vulcanization was
discovered, natural rubber was difficult to use in applications such as automobile tires because it would
become sticky when heated. Natural rubber is no longer widely used, having been replaced by synthetic
forms. But the large-scale development of vulcanized tires and the design freedoms they afforded
automotive engineers was an important component of the growth of the U.S. automobile and tire
industries. Another critical physical property of polymers is elasticity. The ability of many polymeric
materials to be stressed and deformed but return to their original shape is a characteristic that is often
valuable to engineers. Fibers, in particular, must be elastic. Polymers that are particularly flexible and
elastic are sometimes referred to as elastomers.
Polymers and Additives
Despite their wide range of useful properties, polymers alone often do not have the characteristics
needed for a particular design. Fortunately, additives can be included in the material to control polymer
properties further and improve performance. Some additives have only modest mechanical effects.
Pigments, for example, can be added solely to change the color of the material and don’t influence the
underlying molecular structure of a polymer. Other additives play critical roles in the performance of the
materials. PVC alone, for example, is too brittle for many applications. To rectify this, relatively small
molecules called plasticizers are added to improve its flexibility. A plasticizer has to have several
critical features. It must be capable of being incorporated into the solid polymer, so its structure should
resemble the polymer being used. It must be nonvolatile, or it will escape from the solid too quickly and
no longer impart the desired fl exibility. Plasticizers do escape slowly, however, and often the smell
associated with plastic materials arises from the release of trace amounts of these additives. Other
additives that find regular use include antistatic agents to provide static protection by lowering the
resistivity of the material, fillers to reduce the cost and improve properties, fire retardants to inhibit
or retard ignition or burning of plastics and light and heat stabilizers to prevent environmental
effects.