Polymers and Life(PL) Flashcards
What is a polymer?
Long molecule made up from lots of small molecules called monomers
What is addition polymerisation?
When the monomer units need a double bond to be added
What is copolymerisation?
When more than one type of monomer is used in addition polymerisation
What are the two types of polymers and what is the difference between the two?
- A-A polymers are made from all the same monomers
- A-B polymers are alternating polymers, made from two monomers
Give an example of a co-polymer
Polyesters formed from a diol and carboxylic acid
What is copolymerisation?
When more than one type of monomer is used in addition polymerisation
Give three differences between addition and condensation polymerisation
- Addition only one type of monomer is used/Condensation formed from two types of monomers
- Addition formed from alkenes/Condensatioon formed from diols and carboxylic acids
- Additions no other products other than the polymer/Condensation also produces a small molecule in addition to the polymer
What’s the sufix if a molecule has two carboxyl groups?
-dioic acid
What is formed from the reaction between an alcohol and a carboxylic acid?
An ester
What’s formed when carboxylic acids react with carbonates?
Salt + carbon dioxide + water
How do you name esters?
The group with C=O is the carboxylic acid and the group attached to the -o- id the alcohol
What is a base?
A molecule that accepts protons
How can amines be classified?
Primary,secondary and teriary based upon how mnay hydrogen atoms have been replaced by alkyl groups
When does the naming of amines switch order?
When the amino group is placed on a hydrocarbon chain with more than two carbons. The amino becomes the prefix
Three points
What are the properties of amines?
- Amines can form hydrogen bonds with water
- Amines with small alkyls are more soluble
- Amines with larger alkyl groups less soluble as the enthalpy change to break hydrogen bond between water molecules is too great
What is the functional group of an amine?
NH2
How do amines act as bases?
When the lone electron pair on the nitrogen atom is donated, an amine acts as a H+ acceptor
What are amides and what is their functional group?
Amides are derivatives of carboxylic acids and their functional group is CONH2
What two functional groups is required to make a nylon or polyamide?
Diamines and dicarboxylic acids/acyl chlorides
What are acyl chlorides and why might we use them in place of carboxylic acids?
Acyl chlorides are reactive forms ofcarboxylic acids
What is formed when reacting an acyl chloride and an alcohol?
Esters
How are nylons named?
Nylon-x,y
x=numbe of carbon atoms in the diamine
y=number of carbon atoms in the dicarboxylic acids/diacyl chlorides
What are the products of esters in acid or alkanine hydrolysis?
- Acid=carboxylic acid and alcohol
- Alkanine=carboxylate salt and alcohol
What are the products of a primary amide in acid hydrolysis and alkaline hydrolysis?
- Acid=carboxylic acid and ammonium
- Alkaline=carboxylate ion and ammonia
What are the products of secondary amides in acid hydrolysis and alkaline hydrolysis?
- Acid=carboxylic acid and ammonia+hydrocarbon chain
- Alkaline=carboxylate ion and primary amide
What’s the structure of an amino acid?
An amino group, carboxylic acid group, R group and the α-carbon
What’s the α-carbon?
The first carbon attached to the carboxylic acid
How do amino acids form zwitterions?
The hydrogen ion from the carboxylic acid group is donated to the amino group to from NH3
What are bifunctional compounds and give an example
Bifunctional compounds are molecules with two functional groups e.g. amino acids
Why are amino acids particualry soluble in water?
They are effectively ionic
What are buffer solutions?
Solutions which cab withstand the addition of small amounts of acid or alkali
Which bond is broken in the hydrolysis of amides?
C-N bond is broken by hydrolysis with either an acid or alkali catalyst
Why does glycine not have optical isomerism?
There are only three different groups attached to the four bonds
What is the definition of stereoisomerism?
Molecules have the SAME MOLECULAR FORMULA but the atoms are joined to each other in a DIFFERENT SPACIAL ARRANGEMENT - they occupy a different position in 3-dimensional space.
What is the link formed between in two amino acids and what is its name?
The amino group and carboxylic acid group reacts to form a peptide link
What are the three levels of protein structure?
- Primary structure=the order of the amino acid residues
- Secondary=the coiling parts of the chain folded into a helix or the formation of a region of sheet
- Tertiary=the folding of the secondary sheet
What is an enzyme?
A biological catalyst, this means it is produced in the body and increases the rate of reaction
What are the four characteristics of an enzyme?
- Highly specific
- Sensative to tempature
- Sensative to pH
- Subject to competative inhibitors
Why are enzymes highly specific?
- They have a precise tertiary structure
- A cleft in the enzyme (active site) due to how the protein folds, is tailored to fit a specific substrate molecules
Why are enzymes sensative to pH?
Changing the pH changes ionisable groups
this can cause the tertiary structure to break, it is denatured
Why are enzymes sensative to temperature?
Too much energy resulting in the intermolecular bonds, holding the tertiary structure, to breal
What happens to the order of the substrate as the reaction progresses and why?
It goes from 1st order to 0 order
This is because the active site of the enzymes become fully saturated, preventing more of the substrate from binding
How can inhibitors be used in everyday society?
Some medicine work by inhibiting the actioon of enzymes
What is molecular recognition?
The ways in which molecules interact in terms of intermolecular and other non-covalent bonds
What is a pharmacore?
The part of its molecule that gives the medicine its pharmological effect
What are the characteristics of a pharmacore and how are they explained?
- Can be modified by changing functional groups attached=can make medicine more effective and reduce side-effects
- Interact with receptor sites by forming weak interactions
- Fit into receptor with the correct size,shape and orientation=they can form correct weak bonds
What information can be given by a proton n.m.r spectrum about a molecule?
- How many different chemical environments there are
- Ratios of the number of equivalent hydrogen atoms
- Chemical environment of the non-equivalent hydrogen atoms
- Number of adjacent hydrogen atoms that are non-equivalent
Enzyme active site
How do inhibitors work in medicine?
- Ihibitor has the same shape as the substrate
- The inhibitor binds to the active site of the enzyme
- This stops the substrate from binding to the active site of the enzymes
Describe the structure of the monomer units in DNA
- A phosphate group, deoxyribose sugar and a nirtogen containing base
- Phosphodiester bonds bind the ribose sugar of one nucleotide to the phosphate group of another
- Hydrogen bonds are found between complementry base pairs
Not as detailed as biology (Four points)
Describe the process of transcription
- DNA molecules unzipped by DNA helicase
- Free nucleotides bind to the complementry bases~thymine is replaced with uracil
- Phosphodiester bonds are formed to create a sugar-phosphate backbone~for the mRNA template strand
- mRNA is formed and the DNA is re-formed
Three points
Describe the process of transcription
- Nucleotides in the mRNA are grouped together into codons~each codon corresponds to a specific amino acids
- Each codon read by tRNA anti-codons and specific of amino acids are formed
- Polypeptide chain formed ~then folds into secondary and tertiary structure for the protein
What are two differences between RNA and DNA?
RNA=uracil and ribose sugar
DNA=thymine and deoxyribose sugar
What do the number of peaks in NMR tell you?
The number of different carbon/hydrogen environments
What type of resolution has splitting peaks?
High resolution NMR
What does different types of spectra tell you about a molecule?
- Low res NMR:Mr from M+ ion and fragments
- High res NMR:molecular formula from the M+ ion
- IR:certain fuctional groups
- 13C NMR:the number and types of carbon environments
- 1H NMR:number and types of hydrogen environments, number of hydrogen atoms in each environment and the number of adjacent hydrogen atoms
