ABSTRACT
This chapter emphasizes condensation polymers. Since most of these are formed from stepwise kinetics, it focuses on this kinetic process. Even so, some of these polymers can be synthesized employing the ring-opening polymerizations (ROPs), which employ the chain polymerization process for synthesis rather than the stepwise process for formation. The chapter then discusses a comparison between the polymer types and kinetics of polymerization. While condensation polymers account for only a modest fraction of all synthetic polymers, most natural polymers are of the condensation type. The first all-synthetic polymer, Bakelite, was produced by the stepwise polycondensation of phenol and formaldehyde. The kinetics for stepwise polycondensation reactions and the kinetics for monofunctional aminations and esterifications, for example, are similar. The proposed mechanisms for polycondensations are essentially the same as those proposed in the organic chemistry of smaller molecules. The chapter then considers several examples to illustrate this similarity between reaction mechanisms for small molecules and those forming polymers.
