Definition of Polymers
Polymers, commonly called plastics, are artificial products that are not available in nature. They are produced artificially from basic organic materials, crude oil, natural gas, or even biomass. The initial products, so-called monomers, are low molecular weight gases or liquids. High molecular weight macromolecules with solid consistency are synthesized through chain reactions and sometimes through cross-linking.
There are three different reactions in the synthesis of plastics from the monomers: polymerization, polycondensation, and polyaddition.
Since the first production of polyethylene on a large scale by ICI (Imperial Chemical Industries) in the 1930s, polymer materials, or as they are simply called, plastics, have been inevitable as successful packaging materials. Plastics protect all kinds of products like food, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, medical products, and other nonfoods against deterioration. Although the amount of tissue material such as paper, paper board, and corrugated board used for packaging is a bit higher than polymers, polymers are inevitable for primary packaging. They fulfill all of the legislative regulations worldwide for direct contact with the product, particularly with food.
Ethylene with H2C=HC2 formulation has the most production in petrochemical’s compound. Ethylene is the lowest weight olefins, which is transparent gas, flammable and almost sweet odor. Polyethylene is one of the easiest, cheapest and most used plastic material in the world. This material is obtained by polymerization of ethylene and is briefly shown as PE.

Types of polyethylene

The classification of polyethylene is based on density, which effective on density is; the size of polymer chains and number of branches in them. PE including: LDPE, MDPE, HDPE, LLDPE, MLLDPE, PE copolymers.

usages of polyethylene

polyethylene films is used for food packaging, clothing, plastic bags, protective film for construction application, moisture insulating, greenhouses, coating products to protect from dust, sunlight and humidity during of storage or transportation, etc.