ABSTRACT
Synthetic polymeric materials have come to play an important role in our every day lives, with uses ranging from the prosaic (plastic garbage bags and man made textiles) to the more unusual (medical implants and automobile bodies) [1]. Polymers, which are composed of one or more repeating subunits called monomers, often appear to be quite simple molecules. Beyond this deceptive simplicity, however, there is a great deal of chemical and physical complex ity. The properties of a polymeric material result from the interdependence of many structural features. On the molecular level, the chemical identity and stereochemical configuration determine the nature of the inter-and intrachain interactions that govern the tendency of the polymer chain to adopt particular spatial conformations. On the supramolecular level, the possible presence of regions of chain ordering may lead to a two-phase structure composed of both crystalline and amorphous domains [2,3]. All of these factors combine to produce
materials that may be as elastic as rubber, as ductile as polyethylene, or as rigid as an epoxy resin.
