ABSTRACT
Textile structures, in the form of fiber, yarn, fabric, or composite, are essentially constituted of polymers. Both natural and synthetic polymers have come to be used in conventional as well as advanced technical textiles. Characterization techniques of polymers continue to advance with progress in instrumentation and computer-enhanced data analysis. The molecular level configuration of polymers, such as the average molecular weight and polydispersity, is determined through chromatographic techniques like gel permeation chromatography (GPC) and high performance liquid chromatography. Polymers are composed of various chain lengths that determine the mix of properties of polymers. GPC is used to determine the average molecular mass and molecular mass distribution of synthetic polymers, high performance polymers and oligomers. Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) is a fundamental thermal analytical tool that allows the exploration of the thermal behavior of polymers, namely, the physical changes that take place in a polymer upon heating and cooling.
