MONOMErS & POLYMERS

bio1fall · Post by **bio1fall** » Tue Oct 20, 2009 1:44 am

MONOMErS & POLYMERS

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Post by bio1fall » Tue Oct 20, 2009 1:44 am

I need some examples of monomers & polymers to understand them....

something maybe like..
name.. & molecular formula...

I have an idea of monomer....
maybe like the functional groups??
Carbxyl.. CHO2? is that even right???

ahh im so lost.

mith · Post by **mith** » Tue Oct 20, 2009 4:03 am

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Post by mith » Tue Oct 20, 2009 4:03 am

find the polymer before finding the monomer.

Example, styrofoam is made from polystyrene

Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
~Niebuhr

kolean · Post by **kolean** » Tue Oct 20, 2009 12:42 pm

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Post by kolean » Tue Oct 20, 2009 12:42 pm

Mono means one, and the mono'mer' is one unit of something.
Poly means many, thus poly'mer' is many units of something.

A classic example in biochemistry could be amino acids. Amino acid (the monomer)s are connected by a peptide bond, to make a polypeptide. Polypeptides can be long enough to make a complete protein product.

Another example could be sugars/carbohydrates. Look at a monomer of a sugar unit (glucose for instance) and then think what many sugars covalently bonded together could be (starch or glycogen).

Think of oils (lipids).

In chemistry, "poly" of many units make up plastics. Just look up what recycling symbols on containers to find the ones that we use the most in everyday life. Like milk containers are usually '1' which is PETE.
http://www.thedailygreen.com/green-home ... ics-460321

JackBean · Post by **JackBean** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 8:32 am

Re:

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Post by JackBean » Thu Oct 22, 2009 8:32 am

kolean wrote:Think of oils (lipids).

Really lipids and polymers?

http://www.biolib.cz/en/main/

Cis or trans? That's what matters.

kolean · Post by **kolean** » Fri Oct 23, 2009 3:26 am

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Post by kolean » Fri Oct 23, 2009 3:26 am

True. I was thinking of the repeating carbon unit in the fatty acids, but that is just a long molecule of carbon and hydrogen. And there is double bonds here and there, so not a true repeating unit. And most fatty acids are attached to the backbone of glycerol, but suppose that all three fatty acids were the same, could it then be a polymer? A defined polymer of 3?