Polymer physics
From Plastics Wiki, free encyclopedia
Polymer physics is the field of physics associated to the study of polymers, their fluctuations, mechanical properties, as well as the kinetics of reactions involving degradation and polymerisation of polymers and monomers respectively.
While it focuses on an aspect of the study of condensed matter physics, the field of polymer physics has developed as a branch of statistical physics. Polymer physics and polymer chemistry are part of the wider field of polymer science.
Disordered polymers are too complex to be described using a deterministic method. However statistical approaches can yield results and are often pertinent since large polymers (that is to say, polymers which contain a large number of monomers) can be described efficiently as systems at the thermodynamic limit.
Thermal fluctuations continuously affect the shape of polymers in liquid solutions, and modelling their effect requires a recourse to the principles of statistical mechanics. As a corollary temperature strongly affects the physical behavior of polymers in solution.
The statistical approach to polymer physics is based on an analogy between a polymer and either a brownian motion, or some other type of random walk. The simplest possible yet quite universal polymer model is presented by the ideal chain. The Worm-like chain is a more complex model
The Russian and Soviet schools of physics have been particularly active in the development of polymer physics.
