What are Polymers
Polymers are materials including plastics, rubbers, fibres, coatings and adhesives. The word polymer is derived from the Greek polys, which means ‘many’, and meros, which means ‘part’, in other words, a polymer is something that consists of many parts. A polymer in real life is a chemical substance composed of an enormous number of extremely large, usually chain-shaped molecules. These are called chain molecules, or simply chains. These chain molecules (or chains) are in turn composed of ‘many parts’, in fact thousands of repeating units that form the links of the chains. A polymer is produced in a process called polymerisation. In polymerisation, small simple molecules called monomers (from the Greek mono, ‘one’ + meros, ‘part’) bond together to form the chain molecules of polymers. The repeating units (the links) of the polymer chains are chemically similar but not identical to the original monomer molecules.
This feature of long molecular chains gives polymers the special properties that make them useful plastic and rubber materials. Plastics and rubbers are used extensively in our everyday lives as well as well as in many high-technology applications.
If you want to learn more about polymers, check out our courses in Polymer Technology and Engineering. Alternatively you can browse our section which is linked to other useful sites about polymers.
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