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Engineering LibreTexts

8: Transitions

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Transition regions are narrow temperature intervals over which the properties of a polymer change by a large amount. The most important examples are the glass transition and the crystal melting transition. Most semicrystalline polymers exhibit their most useful properties between the temperatures of the glass transition, Tg, and the crystal melting point, Tm

  • 8.1: Crystal Melting Transition
    Melting is the transition between a crystalline solid and a liquid. The melting point of a small molecule is very well-defined at a given pressure. Water, for instance, melts at 0oC when P = 1 atm. Polymers, on the other hand, do not have a single well-defined melting point. When a polymer "melts" it slowly becomes "leathery," then "tacky," and then liquid over a fairly broad temperature range42.
  • 8.2: Factors Influencing Tg
  • 8.3: The Glass Transition
    Semi-crystalline solids have both amorphous and crystalline regions. According to the temperature, the amorphous regions can be either in the glassy or rubbery state. The temperature at which the transition in the amorphous regions between the glassy and rubbery state occurs is called the glass transition temperature.

Contributors and Attributions

  • David Whisnant (Wofford College). Partial support for this work was provided by the National Science Foundation's Division of Undergraduate Education through grants DUE #9950809 and DUE #9950296. Additional support was provided by the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation.


This page titled 8: Transitions is shared under a not declared license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by David Whisnant.

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