Polymers

Read our general notes on Risk Assessment

Polymers are materials with very, very long-chain molecules. In many instances the polymers arise because of the unique ability of carbon atoms to join up to form long chains and rings.
 
Once chemists had realised that natural materials such as rubber consist of long-chain molecules, they set about making synthetic polymers. There are two main ways to make polymers: addition polymerisation and condensation polymerisation.

back to A2 Chemistry

Webguides

• Polymers and intermolecular forces
• A polymeric shopping mall

Recently Asked Questions

• For polymers, as the temperature increases from very cold to hot, the plastic goes from being a brittle solid to a liquid. The glass transition temperature is when the polymer becomes flexible. I realise this can be explained by knowing that at lower temperatures molecules can't slide over each other as easily, but does the proportion/ratio of amorphous:crystalline regions alter with temperature? What is happening to the intermolecular forces at the melting point/glass transition temperature? 140408
• I'm doing my individual investigation about the kinetics between bromide and bromate(V) ions. I have completed the experiments on finding the order of reaction by varying the concentration of bromate(V), bromide and sulphuric acid. Now, I am trying to find suitable catalysts and calculate the order of reaction respect to the catalysts. The catalysts I used are Fe(III) and Cr₂O₇^2-. I have completed a set of experiments and the order of reaction respects to Fe(III) is apparently first order. However, when I plotted a graph of initial rate against concentration/conc²/conc³ of Cr₂O₇^2-, it doesn't show a straight line. I have repeated the experiment several time but it still doesn't work. So can I ask what should be the order of reaction respect to Fe(III), Cr₂O₇^-?
• How many ethene monomer molecules have to polymerise to form a polymer of molar mass 3000 g mol^-1? 100408

more

updated: 14 September 2003