Poetry Of Polymers (1966)

[Music] thank you [Music] c6h4 [Music] ch double bond in c6h4 and double bond CH I think that will be it [Music] what was it my secretary told me to remember to look at I know there's Beauty and poetry throughout the campus of Notre Dame I miss much of the poetry Magnolias that's what I was supposed to see sometimes I miss the party of the visible world when I'm thinking of another kind of poetry when I'm thinking about molecules and atoms I'm in The Invisible world it has its poetry too you can't explore it without feeling or in wonder that's the root of all poetry are in wonder by the way this sign will introduce me I'm Frank delaleo research profession chemistry at the University of Notre Dame research I'm doing now is to do with polymers means pot so polymers means many pots polymers are synthesized for simple molecules called monomers they are the Giants among the molecules I'll show you some of these polymers this is a special type of impact nylon [Music] how tough and ductile it is here is another type of polymer Crystal Clear polystyrene it is very stiff and shall as one bent [Music] this poem is a synthetic polyurethane rubber [Music] it's elasticity is phenomenal [Music] paper clips can help explain how polymers are structured each clip represents a unit that is a monomer we can hook monomers on and on until we have many many mirrors polymers we can hook on and on until the length is thousands of times the dimension of the thickness this linear aspect is elongatedness this great ratio of length of thickness is a characteristic of all polymer structures just as in this chain in which each link is a mirror these links pardon me I mean MERS are hooked together with single bonds they are strong but if they hook together with double bonds they are of course even stronger [Music] here is a chain in which the mirrors are hooked together as conjugated double bonds [Music] the wonderful thing about double bonded mirrors unlike single bonded MERS and polymers is that they will allow electrons to roam up and down the polymer back bone this racing motion of the electrons back and forth causes a polarization in the chain this phenomenon makes the polymers behave as if there are electrical magnets because they behave like magnets they exhibit intermolecular cohesion this intermolecular cohesion causes one row of paper clips I mean MERS to adhere to another role this intermolecular cohesion caused by the electrons racing up and down makes for extra strong material it is strong because if a break occurs at a mirror the fragment cannot fly off it is held there by this intermolecular cohesion here's an atomic model it looks more professional than paper clips or chains I use it to explain in another way what polymers are polymers are made up of atomic elements usually carbon and hydrogen with nitrogen and oxygen and in some cases with other elements so here I take some of these elements and form an amino acid then I'll combine these monomers to form a polypeptide polymer this is one of the most interesting because it is found in you in your muscle skin hair and flesh there's a lot of you right here the more we know about polymers the more useful things can be made of them for example here in this office there are useful objects made of polymers this desktop the tape in this recorder the telephone the frame in my glasses this ballpoint pen even on their paper [Music] Nas is exploring outer space and its equipment takes a severe beating from heat cold pressure and radiation Palmas finish them with materials with which to make equipment stronger tougher and lighter we must continue to explore the inner world of the molecule so that we may increase the exploration of the outer world of the planets the Greek philosopher Democritus said to understand their very lives you must first understand they're very small here is where my staff and I do our exploring here we try to find the right monomers which will do the job we want we must have the right mirrors and the polymers to your toughness radiation resistance and thermal stability these are the properties that NASA needs and so does the rest of the industrial world to get high heat resistance we have to make polymers with uninterrupted double bonds the scientist calls these conjugated double bonds we'll take monomers A and B from their bottles and react them according to this equation I'm writing and see if they will synthesize a mirror which will link together into a polymer chain we are looking for a strong chain first we have to weigh monomers A and B separately and accurately on this electronic balance if we are successful in this reaction these compounds will react together to form a strong chain a strong polymer liquid nitrogen is used to cool the trap to condense volatile byproducts [Music] of the reaction the mixture is almost colorless we are going to subject this mixture of monomers to a condensation reaction at about 720 degrees Fahrenheit hoping that a double bonded conjugated polymer might result as time goes on we should see a change in the color in the reaction product the polymer has turned bright yellow at intervals of several hours its color will change from the light to the dark end of the spectrum going to Orange and red and brown and finally black [Music] the color is now black and yet and this is important to remember at this stage of the reaction it can still be remelded after cooling it the synthesis is complete the quads react as cooled and here is one form of the final power [Music] here is the polymer we made and the monomers A and B with which we started we do know that electrons in the monomers do not have substantial Mobility but if we have done our work well and condensed these monomers together so that extended conjugation exists in the polymer the electrons in our new polymer will run freely and the electron spin resonance spectrometer can measure it a few granules of monomerate are placed carefully in the spectrometer [Music] the proper dial adjustments are made now watch the oscilloscope hardly a wiggle so very few electrons are running freely now we will test our new product if our synthesis was successful the spectrometer will show the electrons running freely foreign bits of our Black Creation are placed in the spectrometer [Music] now see the scope see those electrons Peak that means that we have compounded a material with very many uninterrupted conjugated double bonds remember the paper clips and the double bonded chains we now have a strong material but will it resist extreme heat here is a piece of the shattered polished diary that we broke in my office when placed in The Crucible over a Mika burner and heat it to about 1400 degrees Fahrenheit it melts and decomposes no good for our purposes and then [Music] thank you when we subject a piece of our new polymer into the same Heat [Music] it doesn't change but this is not a very scientific test [Music] we can check its thermal stability accurately in a thermographic analyzer [Music] we'll put a sample of our polymer in the cell this tiny sample will be tested to about 2 000 degrees Fahrenheit thank you [Music] watch the X-ray recorder for our evaluation hours later the chart shows that this polymer withstood two thousand degrees Fahrenheit in nitrogen and a thousand degrees Fahrenheit in air so the Palm is extremely strong and heat resistant but can it be fabricated can it be molded into shape and then will it hold that shape against intense heat it is no good to NASA if it cannot be shaped into the form it needs and then it must maintain that form [Music] it must be fusible that is it must be softened by heat then molded Under Pressure to the desired shape it must be so compounding that if it is reheated thereafter it will not soften again we have just proved that our black column is infusible and you might think it is useless remember back in its intermediate stages of reaction it was soft enough to be molded we will take some of our polymer at that stage and subject it to heat this demonstrates to my students that it will be fusible in the mold but even classes must not interrupt some of our experiments [Music] foreign [Music] thank you the material in the mold will be heated to 1100 degrees Fahrenheit under thousands of pounds of pressure until it flows into the shape of the mold we found that if we premixed a catalyst with the polymer it would complete its reaction condensation is continuing inside the mold in the presence of the catalyst it flows under Heat assumes the form of the mold under pressure and then hardens we can even control the time necessary for it to harden by changing the amount and kinds of catalyst so that the hiding does not occur before the molded shape has been completed you saw Dan here is basically what industry must do on a large scale soften mold and have it hardened so that extreme heat will not soften it again [Music] this too is beautiful and was conceived in awe and wonder those of us in fundamental research create things in the laboratory it is someone else's job to find an application of things we discover how is it the discovery this is the application like the boat the basic scientist needs inspiration and freedom to think and dream the courageous Spirit to dream of the awesome wonders of the future of science yet this is not enough he must also work long and late some people think that a scientist must be devoid of emotion no emotion shows in a research report but emotion was a part of every step of the creative process any man who looks into the depths of a grain of sand can't help being filled with the poetic Glory of it the architecture of these campus buildings is a mere nothing compared with the molecular architecture of a grain of sand to the scientists with vision there is no common clay those of us who explore the Hidden World know that every time we open one door we will reveal ten more doors and behind each of these ten doors are ten more doors and on and on and on the world and the universe are not chaotic they are highly honored It Is the destiny of some of us to explore that order the order of the master plan not even Palmas are prosaic they are full of poetry because anyone who looks into them with any vision must be filled with the Wonder of it all the Hidden World to those of us who explore this breathtaking just as breathtaking as the world of trees Gothic Towers Stars the cosmos and the ultimate c14h6 n2s2 04 no or five or is it O2 thank you [Music]