Branched Polymers
A monomer with functionality of 3 or more will introduce branching in a polymer and will ultimately form a cross-linked macrostructure or network even at low fractional conversion. The point at which this three-dimensional structure is formed is known as the gel point because it is signalled by an abrupt change in viscosity. One of the earliest so-called thermosets is known as bakelite. It is not always water that is released in step-growth polymerization: in acyclic diene metathesis or ADMET dienes polymerize with loss of ethylene.
Read more about this topic: Step-growth Polymerization
Famous quotes containing the word branched:
“I am secretly afraid of animals.... I think it is because of the usness in their eyes, with the underlying not-usness which belies it, and is so tragic a reminder of the lost age when we human beings branched off and left them: left them to eternal inarticulateness and slavery. Why? their eyes seem to ask us.”
—Edith Wharton (1862–1937)