What is crosslinking of polymers?

In chemistry and biology a cross-link is a bond or a short sequence of bonds that links one polymer chain to another. These links may take the form of covalent bonds or ionic bonds and the polymers can be either synthetic polymers or natural polymers (such as proteins).

What is cross linked polymer and examples?

The mechanical and physical properties of thermosetting polymers depend on their chemistry, composition, and curing conditions. Examples of cross-linked polymers include: Polyester fiberglass, polyurethanes used as coatings, adhesives, vulcanized rubber, epoxy resins and many more.

What are the factors affecting cross linking in polymers?

During crosslinking, counterions used in the crosslinking process diffuse into the polymer and react forming intermolecular or intramolecular linkages. Main factors which affect chemical crosslinking are the concentration of the crosslinking agents and the reaction duration.

What is the definition of cross linking?

noun. 1. a bond, atom, or group linking the chains of atoms in a polymer, protein, or other complex organic molecule. transitive verb. to attach by a cross-link.

What is the importance of cross linking?

Crosslinking is highly essential in scaffold technology in order to greatly improve the biomechanical features of the scaffolds through network bonding. A crosslink can be established between two functional groups of a polymer chain through either through covalent or non-covalent bonding as illustrated in Fig.

What is the definition of cross-linking?

What are cross-linking agents?

Crosslinking Agents. Crosslinking is the formation of chemical links between molecular chains to form a three-dimensional network of connected. molecules. The vulcanization of rubber using elemental sulfur is an example of crosslinking, converting raw rubber from a weak plastic to a highly resilient elastomer.

What is the process of cross linking?

Crosslinking is the process of chemically joining two or more molecules by a covalent bond. Crosslinking reagents (or crosslinkers) are molecules that contain two or more reactive ends capable of chemically attaching to specific functional groups (primary amines, sulfhydryls, etc.) on proteins or other molecules.

What is crosslinking used for?

Crosslinking reagents are used in a variety of techniques to assist in determining partners and domains of protein interactions, three-dimensional structures of proteins, and molecular associations in cell membranes.

What are the three major forms of cross-linking?

There are three different types of crosslinkers – homobifunctional, heterobifunctional, and photoreactive crosslinking reagents.