Talk:Polymerization

This article is written in American English with IUPAC spelling (color, defense, traveled; aluminium, sulfur and caesium) and some terms that are used in it may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide and chemistry naming conventions, this should not be changed without broad consensus.

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Polymerization article.
This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject.

Put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic.
New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Learn to edit; get help.

Article policies

Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

Polymers (inactive)

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Polymers, a project which is currently considered to be inactive.PolymersWikipedia:WikiProject PolymersTemplate:WikiProject PolymersPolymers articles

Chemistry C‑class High‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Chemistry, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of chemistry on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.ChemistryWikipedia:WikiProject ChemistryTemplate:WikiProject ChemistryChemistry articles
C	This article has been given a rating which conflicts with the project-independent quality rating in the banner shell. Please resolve this conflict if possible.
High	This article has been rated as High-importance on the project's importance scale.

Methods of polymerization

A description of the different methods of polymerization is required. These include the bulk, emulsion, suspension, solution, precipitation and dispersion polymerization methods. Some on these topics alread have article/stubs, and should be linked to. Msmi121 01:44, 10 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Celluloid

Ok, I'm going to be writing a new article on celluloid, and just as an fyi, celluloid is NOT just nitrocellulose. Minimally, it's nitrocellulose (70-80 parts) plus camphor (30 parts or so), plus dyes (0-14 parts), plus ethyl alcohol (1-5 parts), plus all the other extras that get put into plastics. Dwmyers.

previous edit disputed

Last edit removed for the following reasons: Addition polymerization and step-growth polymerization do not refer to the way monomer feed is added to a polymerisation. interfacial and emulsion polymerisation do no represent a means of polymerisation (molecular mechanism) but reflect a set of reaction conditions. radical / cationic / anionic polymerisation belong to the class of addition polymerisation and not step growth. Consult the separate articles addition polymerization and step-growth polymerization . Also, living polymerization can only be archieved with very special reaction conditions. Coordinated polymerization belongs to addition polymerisation. It is always a good idea to include references in an article like ref 1. for this article any book on introduction to polymer chemistry will do.

I don't mind that my changes were reverted. If I add these ideas back in, I'll be sure to provide references. HappyCamper 17:58, 30 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Cleanup: Complete Rewrite Required

There was originally a huge chunk of text (apparently copied and pasted), and somewhat incoherent in nature. I have wikified and better organised the information, but it still does not sound like a proper encyclopedia article. This reason, coupled with the apparent fact that the article was copied and pasted, justifies a rewrite (or at least extensive rephrasing).

— 0612 (TALK); Posted: 11:17, 17 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The last decent version of the article is dated http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Polymerization&oldid=61222731 The overview section for some reason completely dissapeard and I suggest to restore it. The DNA polymerization section simply does not belong here and should be removed V8rik 22:07, 18 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I never realised that there was such a nice, long overview! Thank you for pointing it out. I will restore that section. Thanks again.

— 0612 (TALK); Posted: 08:41, 19 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

depolymerization?

How can polymerization be reversed? -lysdexia 00:52, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

Anything which provides energy to the structure to cause bonds to be broken; electromagnetic radiation, heat, etc.

♥♥ ΜÏΠЄSΓRΘΠ€ ♥♥ ^{slurp me!} 19:50, 11 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

As a rule, polymers with quaternary carbons (such as PMMA) depolymerize when heated with good yields of the monomer. --Cubbi 18:39, 15 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I think you would use cracking. --Ah2190 12:34, 31 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

syntactic gap in Introduction

In Introduction, the second sentence should be modified. "... alkenes, which are a relatively stable due to bonding ..." requires either deleting the indeinite article before "relatively" OR possibly a noun after "stable". I don't know which of the two possibilities would be more correct.---- —Preceding unsigned comment added by Svato (talk • contribs) 02:23, 12 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Polymerisation of alkanes?

I came to this article looking for information on whether it was possible to polymerise methane to form propane or butane (partly to answer a question at talk:butane). The article specifically refers to double bonds and alkenes and seems a little ambiguous about polymerising single bonds. Does this imply that it's not possible to polymerise alkanes, or has it just not been mentioned? --Athol Mullen (talk) 13:37, 11 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Polymerisation

Since the US is not the centre of the world, I propose that the spelling be changed to the more widely accepted Polymerisation (in conjunction with the UK, Australia, Canada and others).--Welcome to the dark side. (talk) 05:44, 6 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I agree that all Wikipedia articles should be titled with their most common name, in accordance with WP: COMMONNAME.

However, the references we have so far in this article usually use "polymerization" -- including the allegedly "International" IUPAC.

If we have a non-representative set of references, would you mind adding more references that use the more common spelling? --DavidCary (talk) 15:06, 21 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

A long time ago, the creator of the original article decided on polymerization, that choice is to be respected, see Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style#Retaining_the_existing_variety V8rik (talk) 16:52, 21 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Depolymerization

Needs:

Explanation of why this occurs.
Generation of carcinogenic liquids and gases as a result, including relevance to:

- the disposal of vinyl siding
- the health impact of the reuse of plastic bottles by consumers
- the possible health impact of the interior atmosphere of cars
- the clouding of windshields of cars.

The chemical breakdown of plastics and other polymers due to time, light, and heat. For a solid polymer, can result in softer (shorter-length) polymers and/or in small molecules that form liquids, gases, or both.

Chain-growth polymerization

Does this edit refer to this sort of thing? Seems a bit obscure to me... but if we are going to mention it I think we need to be clearer.

The edit added the following phrase (in bold here to highlight the new bit):

Chain-growth polymerization (or addition polymerization) involves the linking together of molecules incorporating double or triple chemical bonds, however there are exceptions (i.e., poly(beta-amino esters) are formed from a diacrylate backbone and is step-growth).

Yaris678 (talk) 22:32, 15 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

This exception should not be presented before the typical examples of chain-growth polymerization such as polyethylene and PVC. We could put it in a final section called Exceptions, to show that it is not always true that C=C link together by chain-growth polymerization. Dirac66 (talk) 13:27, 16 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

That makes sense to me. Do you want to make that change? I am not an expert on chemistry. I only ended up here by chance when the edit in question was highlighted to me by STiki. Yaris678 (talk) 08:35, 17 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I have now realized that the polymerization step in the paper you cite does not actually proceed by the linking of two C=C in different molecules, but rather by the linking of one C=C to an amine in the other molecule. So it is not really an exception but another category, and I want to think more about the correct wording before making changes. I will try to do it in the next few days.

And for a non-chemistry expert, you did a good job at finding a relevant paper as a source. Dirac66 (talk) 17:06, 17 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

OK, I have now moved this discussion to the end of the chain-growth section, added the reference suggested above by Yaris678, and explained why the acrylate esters can participate in both chain and step mechanisms (rather than speak of an exception). Dirac66 (talk) 18:07, 19 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Cool. Thanks for doing that change. It's beyond my understanding but it seems to make more sense to me than the previous version. Yaris678 (talk) 22:36, 6 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Article Layout

I appreciate the way the IUPAC definition is presented in the article. Not sure if it was intended or accidental, but I feel that the style can be utilized elsewhere. Cyan.aqua 09:30, 7 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

photopolymerization

Why does the term photopolymerization currently redirects to this article, when currently this article never describes "photopolymerization"? ( I added a single sentence section that mentions one application of photopolymerization, but it still doesn't describe what photopolymerization is).

Was there maybe once information about photopolymerization in this article, but somehow it was accidentally lost? --DavidCary (talk) 14:19, 21 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I have now added a few lines to your new section, in order to introduce the topic and lead up to its use in printing. Dirac66 (talk) 03:01, 22 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Unclear sentence

Can someone clarify/rewrite 'While not used to a large extent in industry yet due to stringent reaction conditions such as lack of water and oxygen, these methods provide ways to polymerize some monomers that cannot be polymerized by free radical methods such as polypropylene. ' thanks DGerman (talk) 18:56, 28 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I think there is a comma missing between yet and due. It should be "While not used to a large extent in industry yet, due to stringent reaction conditions such as lack of water and oxygen, these methods ...", or perhaps "While not used to a large extent in industry yet, because of the need for stringent reaction conditions such as absence of water and oxygen, these methods ..." Dirac66 (talk) 02:26, 29 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]

water (specifically hydroxide ions) causes polymerization

The article Cyanoacrylate includes the statement: " rapidly polymerises in the presence of water (specifically hydroxide ions)".

This does't seem to be covered this article, should it be? DGerman (talk) 19:01, 28 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Perhaps we need a new section. Most of the article (except for the very last paragraph) now considers polymerization in the classic sense of a part of manufacture prior to sale and use. We could add a section on polymerization during use, including (1) the last paragraph on photography/printing by polymerization, and (2) cyanoacrylate adhesives as you suggest. Dirac66 (talk) 02:26, 29 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Alkane polymerization

I removed this statement from the lede since it is obscure (barely true, except in some semantic sense) and has no significance: "Alkanes can also be polymerized, but only with the help of strong acids.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Roberts |first1=Durward T. |last2=Calihan |first2=Lawrence E. |date=1973-12-01 |title=Polymerization (Polycondensation) of Alkanes over Fluosulfonic Acid and Antimony Pentafluoride |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/00222337308066378 |journal=Journal of Macromolecular Science: Part A - Chemistry |volume=7 |issue=8 |pages=1629–1640 |doi=10.1080/00222337308066378 |issn=0022-233X}}</ref>"--Smokefoot (talk) 17:06, 1 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]