Monomer

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Monomer

A monomer (from Greek

Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
mono "one" and meros "part") is a small molecule

Molecule

In chemistry, a molecule is defined as a sufficiently stable, electric charge neutral group of at least two atoms in a definite arrangement held together by very strong chemical bonds....
that may become chemically

Chemistry

Chemistry is the science concerned with the composition, structure, and properties of matter, as well as the changes it undergoes during chemical reactions....
bonded to other monomers to form a polymer

Polymer

A polymer is a large molecule composed of repeating structural units typically connected by covalent chemical bonds. While polymer in popular usage suggests plastic, the term actually refers to a large class of natural and synthetic materials with a variety of properties....
.

ples of monomers are hydrocarbon

Hydrocarbon

In organic chemistry, a hydrocarbon is an organic compound consisting entirely of hydrogen and carbon. With relation to chemical terminology, aromatic hydrocarbons or arenes, alkanes, alkenes and alkyne-based compounds composed entirely of carbon or hydrogen are referred to as "pure" hydrocarbons, whereas other hydrocarbons with bonded com...
s such as the alkene

Alkene

In organic chemistry, an alkene, olefin, or olefine is an Saturation chemical compound containing at least one carbon-to-carbon double bond....
and arene

Aromatic hydrocarbon

An aromatic hydrocarbon or arene is a hydrocarbon, of which the molecular structure incorporates one or more planar sets of six carbon atoms that are connected by delocalised electrons numbering the same as if they consisted of alternating single and double covalent bonds....
homologous series

Homologous series

In chemistry, a homologous series is a series of organic compounds with a similar general formula, possessing similar chemical properties due to the presence of the same functional group, and shows a gradation in physical properties as a result of increase in molecular size and mass ....
. Here hydrocarbon monomers such as phenylethene and ethene form polymers used as plastic

Plastic

Plastic is the general common term for a wide range of synthetic or semisynthetic organic chemistry solid materials suitable for the manufacture of industrial products....
s like polyphenylethene (commonly known as polystyrene

Polystyrene

Polystyrene , sometimes abbreviated PS, is an Aromaticity polymer made from the aromatic monomer styrene, a liquid hydrocarbon that is commercially manufactured from petroleum by the chemical industry....
) and polyethene (commonly known as polyethylene

Polyethylene

Polyethylene or polythene is a thermoplastic commodity heavily used in consumer products . Over 60 million tons of the material are produced worldwide every year....
or polythene).

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Synthetic monomers

Examples of monomers are hydrocarbon

Hydrocarbon

Alkene

In organic chemistry, an alkene, olefin, or olefine is an Saturation chemical compound containing at least one carbon-to-carbon double bond....
and arene

Aromatic hydrocarbon

Homologous series

Plastic

Polystyrene

Polyethylene

Polyethylene or polythene is a thermoplastic commodity heavily used in consumer products . Over 60 million tons of the material are produced worldwide every year....
or polythene). Other commercially important monomers include acrylic monomers such as acrylic acid

Acrylic acid

Acrylic acid or prop-2-enoic acid is a chemical compound and it is the simplest unsaturated compound carboxylic acid with a vinyl group at the alpha carbon position and a carboxylic acid terminus....
, methyl methacrylate

Methyl methacrylate

Methyl methacrylate is an organic compound with the chemical formula CH2=CCO2CH3. This colourless liquid, the methyl ester of methacrylic acid is a monomer produced on a large scale for the production of polymethyl methacrylate ....
, and acrylamide

Acrylamide

The chemical compound acrylamide has the chemical formula Carbon3Hydrogen5NitrogenOxygen. Its IUPAC name is 2-propenamide....
.

Natural monomers

Amino acid

In chemistry, an amino acid is a molecule containing both amine and carboxyl functional groups. These molecules are particularly important in biochemistry, where this term refers to alpha-amino acids with the general formula H2NCHRCOOH, where R is an organic substituent....
s are natural monomers, and polymerize

Polymerization

In polymer chemistry, polymerization is a process of reacting monomer molecules together in a chemical reaction to form three-dimensional networks or polymer chains....
to form protein

Protein

Proteins are organic compounds made of amino acids arranged in a linear chain and joined together by peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of adjacent amino acid Residue ....
s. Nucleotides, monomers found in the cell nucleus, polymerize to form nucleic acids - most famously, DNA

DNA

Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetics instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms and some viruses....
and RNA

RNA

Ribonucleic acid is a type of molecule that consists of a long chain of nucleotide units. Each nucleotide consists of a nucleobase, a ribose sugar, and a phosphate....
. Glucose

Glucose

Glucose , a monosaccharide also known as grape sugar, blood sugar, or corn sugar, is a very important carbohydrate in biology....
monomers can polymerize to form starch

Starch

File:Amylose2.svgFile:Amylopektin Sessel.svgStarch or amylum is a polysaccharide carbohydrate consisting of a large number of glucose units joined together by glycosidic bonds....
es, amylopectin

Amylopectin

Amylopectin is a highly branched polymer of glucose found in plants. It is one of the two components of starch, the other being amylose. It is soluble in water....
s and glycogen

Glycogen

Glycogen is a polysaccharide of glucose which functions as the secondary short term energy storage in animal cells. It is made primarily by the liver and the muscles, but can also be made by the brain and stomach....
polymers. In this case the polymerization

Polymerization

In polymer chemistry, polymerization is a process of reacting monomer molecules together in a chemical reaction to form three-dimensional networks or polymer chains....
reaction is known as a dehydration or condensation reaction

Condensation reaction

A condensation reaction is a chemical reaction in which two molecules or moieties combine to form one single molecule, together with the loss of a small molecule....
(due to the formation of water

Water

Water is a common chemical substance that is essential for the survival of all known forms of life. In typical usage, water refers only to its liquid form or States of matter, but the substance also has a solid state, ice, and a gaseous state, water vapor or steam....
(H₂O) as one of the products) where a hydrogen

Hydrogen

Hydrogen is the chemical element with atomic number 1. It is represented by the chemical symbol H. At standard temperature and pressure, hydrogen is a colorless, odorless, nonmetallic, tasteless, highly combustion and explosive Diatomic molecule gas with the molecular formula H2....
atom and a hydroxyl

Hydroxyl

Hydroxyl in chemistry stands for a molecule consisting of an oxygen atom and a hydrogen atom connected by a covalent bond. The neutral form is a hydroxyl Radical and the hydroxyl anion is called a hydroxide....
(-OH) group are lost to form H₂O and an oxygen

Oxygen

Oxygen no O2 produced; 2) O2 produced, but absorbed in oceans & seabed rock; 3) O2 starts to gas out of the oceans, but is absorbed by land surfaces and formation of ozone layer; 4-5) O2 sinks filled and the gas accumulates]]...
molecule bonds between each monomer unit.

Molecular weight

The lower molecular weight compounds built from monomers are also referred to as dimer

Dimer

File:Carboxylic acid dimers.pngA dimer is a chemical or biological entity consisting of two identical subunits called monomers, which are held together by either intramolecular forces or weaker intermolecular forces....
s, trimers

Trimer (chemistry)

In chemistry a trimer is a chemical reaction of three identical molecules. Trimers are typically encountered as cyclic trimers. Chemical compounds that very easily form trimers are aliphatic isocyanates and cyanic acids as an early intermediate in a polymerisation process, see also oligomers....
, tetramers, quadramers, pentamers, octamers, 20-mers, etc. if they have 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, or 20 monomer units, respectively. Any number of these monomer units may be indicated by the appropriate prefix, eg, decamer, being a 10-unit monomer chain or polymer. Larger numbers are often stated in English in lieu of Greek. Polymers with relatively low number of units are called oligomer

Oligomer

In chemistry, an oligomer consists of a limited number of monomer units , in contrast to a polymer which, at least in principle, consists of an unbounded number of monomers....
s.

Monomer

Synthetic monomers

Natural monomers

Molecular weight

See also

External links

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