Question

What are the polymer units of cotton?

Answer 1

We have to tell polymer units of cotton. As we know, polymers are made up of large molecules. We know that cotton is recyclable and can be reused, so it means that cotton is biodegradable material. The polymers are made up of starch, cellulose etc.

Complete step by step answer:
First, let us discuss the polymers. As mentioned, polymer is a kind of substance made up of very large molecules.
We can say that the small units are known to be monomers.
Let us consider an example of a polymer like polyvinyl chloride (PVC). It is made up of small units of vinyl chloride. So, we can say that vinyl chloride is the monomer unit of PVC,
Now, in the case of cotton, it is considered to be an example of linear, cellulose polymer.
As mentioned, cotton is a biodegradable material. We know that cellulose can also be degraded.
Thus, we can say that cotton is made up of two glucose units, when the glucose units are combined together, we call it as cellobiose.
We can say that the cotton is made up of about 5000 units of cellobiose approximately.
In the last, we can conclude that the monomer unit of cotton is the combination of 2 glucose units. It is also known as cellobiose.
Hence, cellobiose is the polymer unit of cotton..

Note:
Cotton is known as a linear and cellulose polymer. This is because:
As mentioned, cotton is made up of pure units of cellulose, and cellulose is a naturally occurring polymer.
Cellulose is a polymer of glucose units existing in the form of a long chain repeatedly attached to each other.