Most viewers are expected to be polymer science students targeting a specific concept. The tour is a single path intended to briefly mention each concept. It may serve as a review. It may be an introduction to polymers to a someone from an allied discipline, such as physics or math.
A polymer is defined a collection of chemically bonded (covalent) monomers. The molecular weight may be given in atomic units (hydrogen=1, carbon=12, etc.), or the number of monomers present may be counted for degree of polymerization. If polymers of the same chemistry (e.g., polymers from the same monomer) are compared, a dependence of the physical property on polymer molecular weight will be observed. The Fox Flory glass transition temperature equation illustrates the effect of molecular weight on a mechanical property for a polymer.
For some properties, increasing the molecular weight will improve the property. However, as the target molecular weight increases, it may become more difficult to synthesize the polymer and processing the final polymer into a manufactured product will be more difficult.
For a polymer dissolved in a solvent, the viscosity increases with increasing polymer molecular weight. The Mark Houwink equation relates the solution viscosity with polymer molecular weight.
