Pleistomers. Theoretical predictions and experimental findings

Abstract

The paper reviews the scientific achievements reported by the school of polymers founded by Acad. Cristofor I. Simionescu in the field of pleistomers (ultrahigh molecular weight polymers). During the 80’s and 90’s, many efforts were devoted to their synthesis and characterization, and here Simionescu and coworkers have made a substantial contribution. Plasma-induced polymerization was successfully used for the first time to obtain very long macromolecular chains with unusual properties. By using different techniques, systematic studies were carried out in dilute solution and solid state, for determining the conformational characteristics of pleistomers. New thermodynamic approaches were tested and validated experimentally for the very high molecular weight range of polymers. Semidilute solutions of pleistomers were used as model fluids for testing the new rheological concepts for polymers in entangled state.

Keywords

• pleistomers
• plasma-induced polymerization
• conformational characteristics
• excluded volume effect
• entangled macromolecules