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Cory Maggs English 4 cards

Cards in this deck (4)

1A polymer is a large molecule, or macromolecule, composed of many repeated subunits. Because of their broad range of properties, both synthetic and natural polymers play essential and ubiquitous roles in everyday life.Alkenes can be used to make polymers. Polymers are very large molecules made when many smaller molecules join together, end-to-end. The smaller molecules are called monomers. In general:
lots of monomer molecules → a polymer molecule
The animation shows how several chloroethene monomers can join end-to-end to make poly(chloroethene), which is also called PVC.
2One of the useful properties of polymers is that they are unreactive, so they are suitable for storing food and chemicals safely. Unfortunately, this property makes it difficult to dispose of polymersMost polymers, including poly(ethene) and poly(propene) are not biodegradable. This means that microorganisms cannot break them down, so they may last for many years in rubbish dumps. However, it is possible to include chemicals that cause the polymer to break down more quickly. Carrier bags and refuse bags made from such degradable polymers are already available
3a substance which has a molecular structure built up chiefly or completely from a large number of similar units bonded together, e.g. many synthetic organic materials used as plastics and resinsnanosize
4nanosize (not comparable) Having a size measured in nanometers; nanoscale.