Question

How would you explain the connection between monomers and polymers?

Answer 1

In Greek monomer means consisting of one part and in Greek polymer means contain many parts in it. Generally both monomers and polymers are organic in nature. They are going to play a big role in polymerization reactions.

Complete step by step answer:
- In the question it asked how we can explain the connection between monomers and polymers.
- We know that monomers are the building blocks of polymers.
- For example take proteins, proteins are the polymers and the amino acids (monomers) are the building blocks of amino acids.
- Take another example like polysaccharide (Carbohydrates) called a polymer contains a lot of monosaccharide (monomer) then monosaccharides are the building blocks of polysaccharides.
- Therefore without the involvement of monomers there is no existence of polymers in nature.

Additional Information :
- Bakelite is a polymer containing phenol and formaldehyde as the monomers. (Bakelite is also called phenol-formaldehyde resin).
- Polythene is a polymer containing a number of ethylene monomers units and polythene is going to be formed by the addition polymerization of ethylene monomers.
- Nylon-6,6 is a polymer containing hexamethylenediamine and adipic acid are the monomeric units.

Note: Means in nature, polymers exist due to the presence of monomeric units. Mostly polymers are divided into plastics and rubbers depending on the presence of the monomeric units and their crosslinking present in the polymer. If the monomeric unit is butadiene then the polymer is going to form is an example for rubber (polymer).