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Introduction to polymer
chemistry
Lecture 1
1. Introduction to polymer
chemistry
1.1. Definitions and types of polymeric
materials
1.2. Classifications of polymers
1.2.1. Natural and Synthetic polymers
1.2.2. Linear, Branched and network
polymers
1.2.3. Homo and Copolymers
1. Introduction to polymer chemistry
The word polymer is
commonly understood to
mean a large molecule
composed of repeating units,
or mers, connected by
covalent bonds .
The word polymer is derived
from classical Greek poly
meaning many and meres
meaning parts. Thus a
polymer is a large molecule
(macromolecule) built up by
the repetition of small
chemical units.
polymer - a large molecule consisting of
a number of repeating units, with
molecular weight typically several
thousand or higher
repeat unit - the fundamental recurring
unit of a polymer.
monomer - the smaller molecule(s) that
are used to prepare a polymer (may or
may not be equivalent to the repeat
unit). It combines with other molecules
of the same or different type to form a
polymer.
A short polymer chain that consists of several
repeating units of a monomer, but not large
enough to be considered a polymer is an
oligomer.
An oligomer is a low molecular-weight polymer.
A species will be called polymeric if articles
made from it have a significant mechanical
strength and oligomeric if such articles are not
strong enough to be practically useful. The
distinction between the sizes of oligomers and
the corresponding polymers is left vague,
however, because there is no sharp transition
in most properties of interest.
The word macromolecule is a
synonym for polymer.
Classifications of polymers