Importance Of Polymers

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CHAPTER 1:
INTRODUCTION

This chapter mainly explains about the problem statement or identification. It also highlights the objectives and the significance of the study, recovery of polymeric material from Leucaena leucocephala peel. According to the global perspective, some plants are wildly grown in the forest. Every plant has its own functions and uniqueness. For the local scenario, some plants are also easy to grow and can produce in abundance numbers of production. The productions may worth in huge profit. Plants normally constitute a source of chemical compounds which are of potentially use in many applications. Plants contain many active compounds such as alkaloids, steroids, tannins, glycosides, volatile oils, fixed oils, resins, phenols and flavonoids which are deposited in their specific parts such as leaves, flowers, bark, seeds, fruits, root, and others.

1.1 Polymer compound

Polymer means any of various chemical compounds made of smaller identical molecules called monomers linked together. Some polymers, like cellulose, occur naturally. Polymers have extremely high molecular weights, and made-up of many of the tissues of organisms, and have various uses in industries. The process by which molecules are linked together to form polymers is called polymerization (The American Heritage Science Dictionary, 2005). Polymeric compound is a compound made of many smaller molecules such as cellulose, chitin, soy protein, casein and many more. Polymeric is an organic giant molecule and most of the compound is non-crystalline.

1.2 Leucaena leucocephala

Figure 1.0: Picture taken from the property of Majlis Bandaran Shah Alam (MBSA), 2014
Leucaena leucocephala is a small tree originated in Mexico and escaped as a...

... middle of paper ...

...s a weed in tropical and warm temperate region of other countries. Leucaena leucocephala is a medium sized fast growing tree belongs to the family Fabaceae. It is native to Southern Mexico and Northern Central America and now it has naturalized in many tropical and sub-tropical locations. The specific name ‘leucocephala’ comes from ‘leu’ meaning white and ‘cephala’, meaning head, referring to the flowers. It is commonly known as White Lead tree, White Popinac, Jumbay and Wild Tamarind. Seeds are dark brown with hard shining seed coat. The tree has multifarious uses like firewood, timber, greens, fodder, green manure provide shade and controls soil erosion (Pendyala, Baburao and Chandrasekhar, 2010).

2.5 Characterization of chitin

2.6 FTIR

2.7 DSC

2.8 Elemental Analysis (CHNOS)

2.9 TGA

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