Polymers Large molecules rubber

A polymer, large molecules, is made of linked smaller molecules. Firstly, the rubbery properties of rubber trees were discovered by the Mayans. A polyelectrolyte is a macromolecule dissolved in water or polar solvent and gets a large... 

A large fraction of the chemical industry worldwide is devoted to polymer manufacture, which is very important in the area of hazardous wastes, as a source of environmental pollutants, in toxicology, and in the manufacture of materials used to alleviate environmental and waste problems. Synthetic polymers are produced when small molecules called monomers bond together to form a much smaller number of very large molecules. Many natural products are polymers for example, cellulose in wood, paper, and many other materials is a polymer of the sugar glucose. Synthetic polymers form the basis of many industries, such as rubber, plastics, and textiles manufacture. 

Polymer science dates from the recognition that polymers - such as rubber, cellulose, polystyrene, to name a few - consist of the very large molecules that we call macromolecules. More specifically, they consist of long chains of atoms linked by chemical bonds. The number of atoms in these chains usually runs into the thousands. This rudimentary, but fundamental, conception of the molecular constitution of polymeric substances is the cornerstone of modern polymer science. Without it, a science of polymers could not have been founded and elaborated. [3]... 

Polymers are very large molecules made up of repeating units. A majority of the compounds produced by the chemical industry are ultimately used to prepare polymers. These human-made or synthetic polymers are the plastics (polyethylene, polystyrene), the adhesives (epoxy glue), the paints (acrylics), and the fibers (polyester, nylon) that we encounter many times each day. It is difficult to picture our lives without these materials. In addition to these synthetic polymers, natural polymers such as wood, rubber, cotton, and wool are all around us. And, of course, life itself depends on polymers such as carbohydrates, proteins, and DNA. This chapter discusses synthetic polymers. Naturally occurring polymers are presented in Chapters 25, 26, and 27. 

A polymer, as we ve seen, is a large molecule built up by repetitive bonding together of many smaller units, or monomers. Polyethylene, for instance, is a saturated polymer made from ethylene units (Section 7.101, rubber is an unsaturated pol3nner made from isoprene units (Section 14.7), and Dacron is a polyester made from acid and alcohol units (Section 21.10). 

Polymers are everywhere, making fabrics such as nylon and polyester, plastic wrap and botdes, rubber bands, and many more products you see every day. How many polymers can you identify in Figure 18.15 What do the polymers that make up such dilferent substances have in common All are large molecules made of smaller, repeating emits. 

Polymers are a class of substances that consist of very large molecules, macromolecules, built up from many multiples of small molecules, monomers. They can be synthetic (polythene, nylon) or natural (protein, rubber), and occur widely in nature as vital components of living organisms. Most polymers, both natural and synthetic, have a framework of linked carbon atoms. These are strong because the carbon atoms are linked by covalent bonds. The long molecules themselves are linked by some of the weak bonds listed in Table 3.1 and are... 

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