Amorphous and Crystalline

Introduction
• Polymers are large macromolecules formed by joining a large
number of smaller units called monomers.

• There are two types of polymers :

 Homopolymers - formed by the joining of single type of
monomer
 Heteropolymer - formed by the joining of two or more
different types of monomer molecules

• Another classification is based on the material properties of

the polymer, namely; crystalline and amorphous.
What is Amorphous?
• Amorphous polymers are polymers that are composed of
amorphous regions where molecules are randomly arranged.
• Polymers can be either completely amorphous or mixed with
both amorphous and crystalline regions.
• Amorphous polymers possess widely different mechanical and
physical properties owing to their structure and temperature.
What is Crystalline?
• Not a single polymer is crystalline because all the crystalline
polymers contain considerable amounts of amorphous
material.
• Thus, crystalline polymers are generally called semicrystalline
polymers.
• Crystalline polymers show X-ray diffraction patterns due to
the existence of specific partial patterns of molecules in the
polymer chains and exhibit a crystalline melting temperature.
Difference Between Amorphous
and Crystalline Polymers

Amorphous Crystalline
Amorphous polymers do not have Crystalline polymers have uniformly
uniformly packed molecules packed molecules
Do not have a sharp melting point Have a sharp melting point
transparent Opaque/translucent
Low shrinkage High shrinkage
Poor chemical resistance Good chemical resistance
soft hard
Low energy High energy