Polypropylene

Polypropylene is one of those rather versatile polymers. It serves double duty, both as a plastic and as a fiber. As a plastic it is used to make things like dishwaher-safe food containers. It can do this because it doesn't melt below 160 C, or 320 F.

polypropylene

Polytheylene, a more common plastic, will anneal at around 100 C. As a fiber, polypropylene is used to make indoor-outdoor carpenting, the kind that is found around swimming pools and mainiature golf courses. It works well for outdoor carpet because it is easy to make colored polyproylene, and because polypropylene doesn't absorb water, like nylon does.

Structurally, it is a vinyl polymer, and is similar to polytheylene, only that on every other carbon atom in the backbone chain has a methyl group attached to it. Polypropylene can be made from the monomer propylene by Ziegler-Natta polymerization and by mettalocene catalysis polymerization.

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