What is crosslinking in chemistry?
Background: Chemical crosslinking refers to intermolecular or intramolecular joining of two or more molecules by a covalent bond. The reagents that are used for the purpose are referred to as ‘crosslinking reagents’ or ‘crosslinkers’. Thus, chemical crosslinking has multitude uses that it can be put to.
What is the purpose of crosslinking?
Thus, crosslinking is used for many purposes, including to: Stabilize protein tertiary and quaternary structure for analysis. Capture and identify unknown protein interactors or interaction domains. Conjugate an enzyme or tag to an antibody or other purified protein.
What are examples of cross linked polymers?
Examples of cross-linked polymers include: Polyester fiberglass, polyurethanes used as coatings, adhesives, vulcanized rubber, epoxy resins and many more.
What are crosslinking 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 crosslinking in polymers?
Put simply, crosslinking involves a chemical reaction between polymer chains to link them together. Crosslinking can influence several end properties across most applications, including: Coating chemical resistance. Polymer flow properties – block and print resistance. Coating toughness.
What physical changes occur during crosslinking?
Crosslinking agents tie together carbon atoms from different chains of the polymer, transforming what were once viscous linear segments into an insoluble gel network that no longer melts or flows like a typical thermoplastic.
What are cross linked polymers?
Polymer chemistry. Crosslinking is the general term for the process of forming covalent bonds or relatively short sequences of chemical bonds to join two polymer chains together. When polymer chains are crosslinked, the material becomes more rigid.
Is Teflon a cross linked polymer?
PTFE is chemically stable and generally not cross-linked by chemical method.
What are crosslinks in polymers?
What are the three major forms of cross linking?
There are three different types of crosslinkers – homobifunctional, heterobifunctional, and photoreactive crosslinking reagents. How do these types of crosslinkers differ from one another and how do you know which one to use for your specific application?
What is branched polymer?
Branched polymers are defined as having secondary polymer chains linked to a primary backbone, resulting in a variety of polymer architectures such as star, H-shaped, pom-pom, and comb-shaped polymers.