TABLE OF CONTENTS The field of dynamics belongs into physical chemistry and deals with the kinetics of making and breaking of bonds in molecules and changes in phases. For macromolecules the basic processes are the syntheses, alteration, and decompositions of polymers and the crystallization and melting. To some degree the kinetics of the glass transition is also of interest. The polymerization kinetics is divided into four major types, as described in Sects. 3.1 and 3.2 (stepwise, step, matrix, and chain reactions). These syntheses lead to different molecular mass distributions, as described in Sect. 3.3. Once a macromolecule is made, its decomposition and its modification by polymer reactions can also be studied in Sect. 3.4 using kinetics, along with facts about polymerization, copolymerization, and cross-linking. Crystal nucleation, molecular nucleation, crystal growth and melting are used to illustrate the kinetics of phase changes in Sects. 3.5 and 3.6. Information on the time-dependence of the glass transition is given in Sects. 5.6, 6.1, and 6.3. Crystallization and melting of flexible macromolecules are often, but not always, free of reorganization of strong bonds. Crystallization during polymerization [1] and decomposition during melting provides connections between flexible and rigid macromolecules (see Sect. 1.1).
Syntheses of pure macromolecules are common in biochemistry, but rare for synthetic polymers. In a pure substance all molecules have the same composition and structure. Most syntheses of polymers, however, give a rather broad range of molecular lengths and may also introduce randomly placed isomers and comonomers,...
