Polymers

Question 1

What is a polymer

Answer 1

Long chains of repeating units

Question 2

What type of bond are all the atoms in a polymer joined by

Answer 2

A covalent bond

Question 3

Describe the intermolecular forces between polymer molecules

Answer 3

• larger than between simple covalent molecules, so more energy is needed to break them
• this means that most polymers are solid at room temp
• however their intermolecular forces are still weaker than ionic or covalent bonds, so they generally have lower boiling points than ionic or giant molecular compounds