Synthetic Polymers

Question 1

what are addition polymers made from?

Answer 1

UNSATURATED MONOMERS.

Question 2

what are polymers?

Answer 2

polymers are substances of high average relative molecular mass made by joining up lots of small repeating units called monomers.

Question 3

what do monomers make up?

Answer 3

• monomers that make up addition polymers have a double covalent bond.
• lots of unsaturated monomer molecules (alkenes) can open up their carbon-carbon double bonds and join together to form polymer chains.
• this is called addition polymerisation

Question 4

what does the name of the polymer come from?

Answer 4

• the type of monomer its made form
• you just put brackets around it and stick the word “poly” in front of it.
• so propene becomes poly(propene)

Question 5

how do you get the formula of the polymer?

Answer 5

• you put the formula of the monomer in brackets and put a little “n” after it.
• so C3H6 becomes (C3H6)n

Question 6

how do you draw the repeat unit of a polymer?

Answer 6

• drawing the displayed formula of an addition polymer from the displayed monomer is easy.
• join the carbons together in a row with no double bonds between them, stick a pair of brackets around the repeating bit and put an “n” after it (to show there are lots of monomers).
• you should also draw a bond from each of the two carbons in the chain that pass through the brackets, this shows the chain continues
• to get the displayed formula of the polymer to the displayed formula of the monomer, just do the reverse. draw out the repeating bit of the polymer, get rid of the two bonds going out through the brackets and put a double bond between the carbons.

Question 7

why are addition polymers hard to get rid of?

Answer 7

• most addition polymers are inert (they don’t react easily)
• this is because the carbon-carbon bonds in the polymer chain are very strong and aren’t easily broken
• this means that it takes a really long time for addition polymers to biodegrade. if you bury them in a landfill site, they’ll still be there years later
• burning plastics can release toxic gases
• so its difficult to dispose of polymers. the best thing is to reuse them as many times as possible then recycle if possible.

Question 8

how can polymers be made?

Answer 8

by CONDESATION POLYMERISATION.

• usually involves two different types of monomer
• the monomers react together and bonds form between them, make polymer chain
• each monomer has to contain at least two functional groups, one on each end of the molecule.
• each functional group can react with the functional group of another monomer, creating long chains of alternating monomers. for each new bond that forms, a small molecule (e.g. water) is lost.

Question 9

what are polyesters and how are they formed?

Answer 9

• CONDESATION POLYMERS
• polyesters form when dicarboxylic acids and diol monomers react together
• the dicarboxylic acids contain two carboxylic acid (-COOH) groups and the diol monomers contain two alcohol (-OH) groups
• when the carboxylic acid group reacts with the alcohol group, it forms an ester link
• polyesters are condesation polymers, each time an ester link is formed, a molecule of water is LOST.

Question 10

what are some polyesters?

Answer 10

BIODEGRADABLE

• biodegradable polyesters, known as biopolyesters, can be broken down by bacteria and other living organisms in the environment over time
• this means they decompose and don’t stay in landfill forever, reducing the polymers’ pollutant effect.

Question 11

polymer definitions

Answer 11

• a substance consisting of huge molecules formed by many small molecules bonding together.
• polymers have repeating units in their structures
• polymers are commonly called plastics

Question 12

monomer definition

Answer 12

the small molecules that join together to produce a polymer

Question 13

addition polymer

Answer 13

a type of polymer formed by adding together monomers (usually alkenes).