Crystals of polystyrene

Published in Chemistry World, 25 Feb 2013

Chemists in Japan and Italy have created a polymer-based material that has a crystalline structure. The material, which achieves its crystallinity with crosslinks between its polymer chains, is expected to have a high mechanical strength that will lend itself well to engineering applications.

The structure of fibrous materials has a big impact on their properties; the high-performance material Kevlar, for instance, owes its high tensile strength to aligned polymers that are anchored together with numerous hydrogen bonds. For this reason, chemists have been keen to hone the structure of polymers that do not naturally crystallise. […]

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