Single-strand organic polymer nomenclature

A Macromolecular Division of lUPAC was created in 1967, and it created a permanent Commission on Macromolecular Nomenclature, parallel to the other nomenclature commissions. The Commission over the years has issued recommendations on basic definitions, stereochemical definitions and notations, stmcture-based nomenclature for regular single-strand organic polymers and regular single-strand and quasisingle-strand inorganic and coordination polymers, source-based nomenclature for copolymers, and abbreviations for polymers. AH of these are coUected in a compendium referred to as the lUPAC Purple Book (99). 

Recommendations on additional aspects of macromolecular nomenclature such as that of regular double-strand (ladder and spiro) and irregular single-strand organic polymers continue to be pubHshed in I ure and Applied Chemistty (100,101). Recommendations on naming nonlinear polymers and polymer assembHes (networks, blends, complexes, etc) are expected to be issued in the near future. 

The Commission on Macromolecular Nomenclature of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry has published a nomenclature for single-strand organic polymers Pure and Applied Chemistry, 48, 375 (1976)). In addition the Association for Science Education in the UK has made recommendations based on a more general lUPAC terminology, and these have been widely used in British schools. Some examples of this nomenclature compared with normal usage are given in Table 2. 

IUPAC Commission on Macromolecular Nomenclature, Nomenclature of regular single-strand organic polymers (Recommendations 1975), Pure Appl. Chem., 48, 373-385 (1976) Compendium of Macromolecular Nomenclature , Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford, p.91 (1991). 

Table 8. lUPAC Nomenclature for Irregular Single-Strand Organic Polymers [8]... 

Nomenclature of Regular Single-Strand Organic Polymers... 

The rules of structure-based nomenclature of regular single-strand organic polymers are of fundamental importance in polymer nomenclature. The names of other kinds of polymers such as double-strand [7] and irregular polymers [8] are based on the principles given in this Report. 

In 1976, the lUPAC Commission on Macromolecular Nomenclature published rules on the nomenclature of regular single-strand organic polymers. These were later revised [1]. A regular single-strand polymer is one which can be described by constitutional repeating units with only two terminals composed of one atom each. 

Alternating sequence arrangements can form constitutionally regular structures and may, in those cases, also be named utilizing the structure-based nomenclature for regular single-strand organic polymers. The example above would be then named... 

Most trivial names, such as polystyrene, are source-based names. Hitherto, the Commission has not systematically recommended source-based names for homopolymers because it considered that the more rigorous structure-based names were more appropriate for scientific communications. However, since the publication of Nomenclature of Regular Single-Strand Organic Polymers in 1976, scientists, in both industry and academia, have continued to use trivial names. Even the Commission itself adopted (1985) a source-based nomenclature for copolymers because of its simplicity and practicality. Based on these facts, the Commission has now decided to recommend source-based... 

Structure-based nomenclature for irregular single-strand organic polymers (lUPAC Recommendations 1994), Pure Appl. Chem. 66, 873-889 (1994). Reprinted as Chapter 17, this edition. 

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