Introduction

Abstract

Polymers form one of the most important groups of materials used in modern industry. The materials in this group encapsulate great diversity in terms of their characteristics, resulting in various polymeric forms such as plastics, rubbers, fibres or dyes. Polymers are applied in almost all sectors of daily life, from households to medicine, agriculture, the automotive industry, up tomicroelectronics and space research. Polymers are typically composed of very large molecules, known as macromolecules, which usually consist of thousands of repeating units, termed monomers. There is huge variety in terms of the types, numbers, arrangements and combinations of monomers found in polymers, which therefore leads to an extremely wide variety of different polymeric materials. As well as synthetic polymeric materials, there are also natural and biological polymers, including proteins, silk, and cellulose.