POLYMER

POLYMER

1. DEFINITION

   • The term polymer is often used to describe plastics, which are synthetic polymers. However, natural polymers also exist.

2. TIPES

   • NATURAL POLYMERS
     • Rubber and wood, Proteins.
   • SYNTHETIC POLYMERS
     • Teflon, nylon, polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride (PVC).

3. Hermann Staudinger

   • His research in the 1920s led the way to modern manipulations of both natural and synthetic polymers.
     • He coined two terms that are key to understanding polymers: polymerization and macromolecules
   • A professor of organic chemistry at the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule in Zurich, is the father of modern polymer development.

4. Polymerization

   • Polymerization is the method of creating synthetic polymers by combining smaller molecules, called monomers, into a chain held together by covalent bonds.
     • Monomers
       • During a polymerization reaction, a large number of monomers become connected by covalent bonds to form a single long molecule, a polymer.

Images and files in the map