Seminari di Storia della Chimica
Dipartimento di Chimica
19 settembre 2006, ore 16.00 - Sala Parravano
prof. Herbert Morawetz
"Some chapters in the history of polymer science"
Abstract:
The lecture will review a few important items from the history of polymer science beginning with the origin of the term polymer and the first observation of styrene polymerization in 1826. In a lecture in 1863, Bertholot first described the formation of a chain molecule and determined the heat of polymerization. The gradual understanding of rubber elasticity will be described. Starting in 1919, Staudinger used a variety of methods to prove that polymers were not formed by the association of small molecules and methods were gradually developed for determining their molecular weights. In the nineteen thirties, the work of Corothers and Flory led to synthetic fibers. Twenty years later a series of surprising accidents led to the discovery of linear polythelene and isotactic polypropylene. Another surprise was the discovery that single polymer crystals contain folded chains.
Il Direttore del Dipartimento Prof. A. Laganą
Il Direttore del Museo Prof. L. Campanella
Universitą La Sapienza di Roma
piazzale Aldo Moro, 5
Dipartimento di Chimica
19 settembre 2006, ore 16.00 - Sala Parravano
