Polymers

Polymer example (polyacetylene)

Polymer is a term used to describe large molecules consisting of repeating structural units, or monomers, connected by covalent chemical bonds. The term is derived from the Greek words: polys meaning many, and meros meaning parts [1]. A key feature that distinguishes polymers from other molecules is the repetition of many identical, similar, or complementary molecular subunits in these chains. These subunits, the monomers, are small molecules of low to moderate molecular weight, and are linked to each other during a chemical reaction called polymerization.

## Resources

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* Introduction
* Properties
* Electron beam

## See Also

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* Portal: Polymer chemistry
* Wikipedia: Polymer
* Wikipedia: Polymer science