PowerPoint presentation (157 KB)

Some introductory chemistry

Most polymers are based on the element carbon.
This is the sixth element in the Periodic Table: see for example

•  Visual Elements (RSC) or American Elements (both relatively slow to download, but more comprehensive),
•  or for more rapid access use About .. Chemistry Periodic Table of the Elements and Chemicool Periodic Table.

An understanding of basic organic (i.e. carbon) chemistry will permit sensible conversations with materials suppliers later in your career.

^*.. on PC, you will need the Cortona3D Viewer plug-in for your browser to view the virtual reality animations below
 .. on Apple, you will need FreeWRL VRML/X3D Viewer plug-in for your browser to view the virtual reality animations below
- position the mouse pointer over the image then hold down the main button while moving the mouse to get movement.

I recommend that you take a while to study the following sequence of pages from Jim Clark's excellent Chemguide website, as they sensibly cover the key issues required for the chemical understanding of the materials used in polymers and composites:

• Electronic structure and orbitals
  • virtual reality animation^* of the three orthogonal atomic p-orbitals (created by Neill Hughes)
• Bonding in methane and ethane
  • virtual reality animation ^* of the four sp³ hybrid molecular electron orbitals (created by Neill Hughes)
• Bonding in ethene
• Bonding in benzene: Kekulé resonance and delocalised orbital models

Other resources for chemistry include:

• About Chemistry
• chemical and molecular structures
• encyclopaedia of chemistry  A-E  F-J  K-O  P-T  U-Z
• glossary of chemical terms
• University of Liverpool - Links for Chemists
• University of Oxford - Chemistry OnLine