Monomers and

Polymers

Let’s start with MONOmers.

What is a MONOmer?

Mono means "one". So, monomers are those itty bitty molecules that can join together to make a long polymer chain.

This is MONOMER MOUSE. He is small. He's holding a monomer, a small molecule

Many, many, many MONOmers make a POLYmer!

How many is "many many many"? Well, usually a single polymer molecule is made out of hundreds of thousands (or even millions!) of monomers! Wow! That's a lot!

Polymers are made up of many, many molecules all strung together to form really long chains (and sometimes more complicated structures, too).

What makes polymers so fun is that how they act depends on what kinds of molecules they're made up of and how they're put together.

Some are rubbery, like a bouncy ball, some are sticky and gooey, and some are hard and tough, like a skateboard.

This is a polymer. It's a very large molecule.

Poly- means "many"

and

-mer means "part" or "segment".

Most of the polymers we'll talk about here are linear polymers. A linear polymer is made up of one molecule after another, hooked together in a long chain. This chain is called the backbone.

Linear polymers don't have to be in a straight, rigid line. Those single bonds between atoms in the backbone can swivel around a bit, kinda like paper clips hooked together end-to-end

A LINEAR polymer chain starts at the beginning and goes straight to the end. You can take your finger and trace the curvy path from one end to the other. To the rest of the world, "linear" means "straight and not curved" but for polymers, linear means "straight and not branched".

A BRANCHED polymer chain has extra beginnings (branches!) along the chain and so it has lots of ends.

The atoms that make up the backbone of a polymer chain come in a regular order, and this order repeats itself all along the length of the polymer chain. (Boy, that makes sense, doesn't it - given that polymers are made by hooking up one molecule after another after another after another.....)

Polymers Are Like TV: Both Have Lots and Lots of Repeats

For example, look at polypropylene (sounds like polly-pro-pill-een):

For example, look at polypropylene (sounds like polly-pro-pill-een):

Some Assembly Required

Polymers don't start out big. They start as tiny little molecules.

Most polymers are organic, employing carbon bonds as their backbone. Others use silicon. Because of the great diversity of polymers, there are many that have yet to be discovered, offering a fruitful field for further research and development.

Smaller molecules are called micromolecules. Polymers link these micromolecules together to form macromolecules

Micro – small; Macro - large

Organic Monomers and Polymers

Carbohydrates• Monomer – monosaccharide (simple sugar)

– C6H12O6

– Ex: glucose; fructose; maltose– Notice that they all end in –ose– Disaccharides are two monosaccharide bonded together– Ex: sucrose

• Polymer – polysaccharide (complex sugar)– Ex: Cellulose (wood, paper); starch (energy storage in

plants); glycogen (energy storage in animals)

Proteins

• Monomer – amino acid– Held together by peptide bonds

• Polymer – polypeptide – Ex: muscle fiber, keratin (hair)

Nucleic Acids

• Monomer – nucleotide

• Polymer – Nucleic Acid (easy huh?)– Ex: DNA, RNA

http://www.concord.org/~btinker/molecular_workbench/unitIV_revised/tree_life_wrkst.html