Notes on the Text

1. man-made polymers — искусственные полимеры

2* gy^!^^{ady in common use} “ Уже широко распространены (исполь-

3. On a large scale в большом масштабе, количестве, широко

4. As late as the end of the 19th century — еще в конце XIX века

б. in various ways — зд. во многом

Text. The nature of polymeric materials

Life depends fundamentally on organic polymers. These polymers provide not only food but also clothing, shelter and transportation.

Indeed nearly all the material needs of man could be supplied by natural organic products. The list of these mate­rials and things made of them might be very long: wood, fur, leather, wool, cotton, silk, rubber, oils, paper, paints and so on. The organic polymers from which such things could be made include proteins, cellulose, starch, resins, and a few other classes of compounds.

Because of the complexity and fragility of their mole- cules, the natural organic polymers, although known and used tor ages, defied attempts to analyse their molecular structure until very recently.

Modern methods of physical and chemical analyses have uncovered the principles that govern the properties of the natural polymers.

On the basis of the discovery involved a new industry of man-made organic polymers has appeared. One could list the principal products: such as fibres, synthetic rubbers coatings, adhesives and a lot of materials called “plastics”. Plastics and synthetic coating are already in common use. It is desirable that they should be used on a large scale, and get further development.

Synthetic polymers now available already possess sever- al of the properties required in a structural material. They are light in weight, easily transported, easily repaired highly resistant to corrosion and solvents, and satisfactorily resistant to moisture. It would be necessary to add that they have long-lived durability and resistance to high temperatu­res. A very important question could arise whether synthetic polymers could be made inexpensive enough to compete with the structural materials such as metals and ceramics The answer could be—“yes”.

It might seem odd that man came rather late to the in­vestigation of organic polymers as the principal means of

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supporting life. The natural polymers such as proteins, cellu­lose and other dominated his existence and even in ancient times people used these materials.

Yet as late as the end of the 19th century polymer chemis­try got little attention.

Chemists attacked sugar, glycerol, fatty acids, alcohol and other ordinary organic compounds—dissolving, precipi­tating, crystallizing and distilling them to learn what these substances were composed of.

But only feeble efforts were made to investigate such common materials as wood, starch, wool, silk. The substances composing these materials couldn’t be crystallized from solu­tion, nor could they be isolated by distillation.

It was only in the 20th century that the scientists begar thorough investigation of these materials. Having used son* powerful physical instruments, an electron microscope, vis­cometer, X-ray-diffraction apparatus, they could have revealec the polymers in all their intricacy. Their molecules wer< incredibly large, the molecular weights running as higl as millions of units, whereas simple organic substances sucl as, for instance, sugar and gasoline have molecular weight in the range of only about 50—500.

The giant molecules can be composed of a large numbe of repeating units, they being given the name “polymer” fron the Greek words “poly” many and “meros” a part. Most poly mers have the form of long, flexible chains. Having foun out that, chemists began synthesizing artificial polymers This has led to the establishment of industries producin synthetic fibres and numerous polymeric materials, many c which were less expensive and superior in various ways to th natural materials.

Now it’s quite clear that the production of syntheti polymers is very important.

Soviet scientists work hard at this problem. It is quil clear that Soviet science will continue to create new polymei and our industry and agriculture will receive cheap new mat* rials with valuable properties.

Remember the following words and word combinations:

clothing	to govern	long-life
to need	man-made	durability
list v> n	fibre	to arise (arose, arisen)
wood	coating	whether
leather	adhesive	such as
paint	on a large scale	fatty

analysis available

thorough

way

clear

analyses desirable

so on to repair

resin satisfactory

complexity

Ex. 9. Answer the following questions:

1. What does life depend on? 2. Why does life depend upon organic polymers? 3. What is the list of materials needed for life? 4. What do organic polymers include? 5. What have modern methods of physical and chemical analyses uncovered?

5. What products appeared on the basis of the discovery of polymers? 7, What properties possess synthetic polymers? 8. Did people use natural polymers such as proteins, cellulose and others in ancient times? 9. When did the scientists begin thorough investigation of the materials such as wood, silk, starch and others? 10. What have they found out about poly­mers? 11. What are the molecules of polymers composed of?

Ex. 10. Retell the text according to the following plan:

1- The importance of organic polymers.

2. Natural organic products.

3. Discoveries made by modern methods.

4. New industry of man-made organic polymers.

5. Synthetic polymers (their properties).

6. The history of polymers.

7. The molecules of polymers.

Ex. 11. Find the pairs of synonyms and remember them:

t? provide, due to, lately, to supply, because of, recently, artificial, a lot of, man-made, many, to learn, for example, to find out, for instance, various, different.

Ex. 12. Find the pairs of antonyms and remember them:

natural, long, artificial, short, involve, appear, modern, evolve, heavy, disappear, old, light, cheap, expensive.

Ex. 13. Choose the Russian equivalents from the right column:

principal products structural material instrument list

apparatus to dominate technique alcohol

список

спирт

аппарат

преобладать

метод, способ

строительный материал

основные продукты

инструмент, прибор

Ех._; 14* State,parts.of speech the words In bold type belong to. Translate . the sentences into Russian:

1. This investigation provided new methods for creating new synthetic materials. 2. Provided this synthetic fibre is cheap, it will be widely used in the manufacture of many prod­ucts. 3. Our industry needs more and more new materials which can resist corrosion and high temperatures._ 4. The need for cheap, good and beautiful materials is growing fast.

3. Phenol and acetone are needed for the manufacture of plastics. 6. New products of organic chemistry are widely used. 7. The use of this new type of polymers helps to develop new machines for the investigation of cosmic space. 8. If you listed all the properties of these new materials, you would understand their importance both in our everyday life and in research. 9. The lists with all necessary equipment have been already sent. 10. Ceramic products are known to cover a wide range of things from small ones to big constructions. 11. Semi­conductor is a material whose conductivity ranges between that of conductors and non-conductors.

Ex. 15. Open the brackets choosing the suitable verb:

1. They (made up, made) this solution evaporate by raising the temperature. 2. These crucibles are (made up, made) from iron and porcelain. 3. Everyone knows that a molecule of water is (made, made up) of two atoms of hydrogen and one of oxygen. 4. High pressure (made, made up) the analyst stop carrying out that experiment. 5. In the presence of suf­ficiently powerful oxidizing agents, most substances can be oxidized, and (are made, made up) to serve as reducing agents. 6. A brief study of this method should be (made use of, made).

Ex. 16. Open the brackets choosing the correct verb forms:

1. It is necessary that this substance (should, shall) be analysed under suitable conditions. 2. If they used these materials, the cost of production (would be, will be) much cheaper. 3. Everybody (should, shall) know that Soviet scientists developed methods of obtaining strong and cheap glass fibre. 4. If you (use, used) such fibres, the material will be very durable. 5. Had they known about this new dis­covery earlier, they (would apply, would have applied) this method in their investigation. 6. Decrease the temperature lest the solution (would, should) evaporate. 7. Were I in your place, I (should, would) investigate the properties of these synthetic materials before using them. 8. The professor

insisted that I (should, shall) take part in this work. 9. It is desirable a chemist (should, will) know the structure of a polymer. 10. Unless synthetic polymers possessed such valu­able properties, they (will, would) not be so important for industry.

Ex. 17. Read the text and retell it:

V. A. Kargin, the Soviet chemist, was born in 1907 in Dnepropetrovsk. He graduated from the University of Mos­cow in 1930, and became head of the laboratory of colloid chemistry in the Karpov Institute. He founded the depart­ment of high polymers at the University of Moscow in 1956.

In 1953 he was elected a member of the Academy of Sci­ences of the USSR.

V. A. Kargin started his research with a study of colloid solutions, in which dispersed substances are not separate molecules but relatively large particles that are charged.

But the main trend in V. A. Kargin’s research was the study of the structure of polymers and the relation between their structure and behaviour. He investigated deformation of amorphous polymers in a wide range of temperatures in terms of deformation of flexible molecules and their models in viscous media.

His research was the basis for the thermomechanical meth­od of polymer characterization, the method widely used in the preliminary estimation of polymers.

Ex. 18. Listen to the following tape-recorded text and then retell it in Russian:

The synthetic chemistry of polymers appeared in 1833, when Berzelius formulated the concept of polymerism.

Gay-Lussac synthesized the first polymer. During the subsequent years the field of macromolecular compounds has been enriched by a large number of new synthetic methods, the contribution of Soviet scientists to polymer chemistry being very substantial.

The works of Butlerov, Lebedev, Favorski, Shorygin, Kargin, Medvedev and others laid the foundations of polymer science. A great number of chemists are now engaged in syn­thesis of new polymers, 50% of all organic chemists working directly or indirectly on polymers, and a still greater number of scientists are occupied with use of the results of these in­vestigations in industrial production, processing and appli­cation of polymers. It should be stated as an illustration that now in the course of one year, about 50,000 new polymers

can be synthesized, i. e. more than 160 new polymers per day or one new polymer every three minutes. Polymer technol­ogy of the future is based to a considerable extent on chemi­cal moulding processes.

Ex. 19. Translate the text in written form using the dictionary:

An important section of polymer synthesis is concerned with production of heat resistant polymers capable of with­standing prolonged use at high temperatures. It was suggested that many polymers should be synthesized for this purpose.

Very great advancements have been made in work on polymers designed for various electrical purposes, such as for production of insulators, electrically conducting materi­als, semiconductors, etc. It should be noted that some inves­tigators have paid much attention to the problem of synthe­sis of polymeric semiconductors and superconductors. For this purpose polymers with conjugated bonds of the type of polyvinylene, polyacetylene, etc. and their derivatives have been prepared. The problem of protection of the environment is closely connected with the problem of production of poly­mers.

This is particularly important in the case of packaging materials. This problem is to be solved in a number of ways, synthesis of polymers being one of them. On the other hand, practical necessity would give rise to the task of preparing non-flammable and self-extinguishing polymers, it being extremely important to the building industry and a number of branches of the new technology.

Another great problem is to find ways of preparing a wide assortment of polymers. It should be mentioned that each element makes its own contribution to the combination of properties. A clear example of this is provided by the organo- silicon polymers.

LESSON 21