Polymer’s Characterization and Properties

This chapter discussed the characterization and properties of polymeric materials. Prominent characterization techniques used for analyzing polymeric materials are mass spectrometry (MS), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), and gel permeation chromatography (GPC), which are used for measuring mass-to-charge ratio (m/z) of analyte ions. Other methods used for this purpose include matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI), electrospray ionization (ESI), and secondary-ion mass spectrometry (SIMS). X-ray diffraction (XRD) is used for solid-state analysis such as degree of crystallinity and crystal structure as well as the unit cell parameters, while Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) is used for identification of the polymer functional groups. NMR helps to identify and characterize various polymers and also provides information on the mobility of their molecules, while X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) provides information regarding the chemical composition of polymeric materials. The physical properties such as hydrophobicity, functional groups, and flexibility of the polymer chain structure and chemical properties such as chemical reactivity, toxicity, biocompatibility, chirality, adsorption capacities, chelation, and polyfunctionality of polymeric materials are also discussed.