Naming of polymers
Polymers are either named according to the monomer that they are polymerized from (e.g. PVC, polymerized from vinyl chloride, CH2=CHCl) or they may be named according to functional groups in their repeating unit.
For instance Polyamide, also known by its brand Nylon, has a number of constitutions where the two most common ones are shown in Figure 5 below. The 6 of Polyamide 6 refers to the number of carbons of its repeating unit while the first 6 of Polyamide 66 refers to the number of carbons in between the nitrogens and the second refers to the number of carbons of the rest of the repeating unit.
The IUPAC rules for naming applies but for these often very complicated molecules this system is not really applicable.
Figure 5. Repeating unit of Polyamide 6 (above) where the amide group is marked with an ellipsoid and Polyamide 66 (below)
Anders Persson, University of Borås
Task
Draw the repeating units of the textile fibre polymers: Acrylic, Polyester and Kevlar.
Draw the repeating units of the textile fibre polymers: Acrylic, Polyester and Kevlar
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Project
Contact
This resource was developed as part of an Erasmus+ project, funded with support from the European Commission under grant agreement 2016-1-SE01-KA203-22064.
The project was a collaboration between:
- The University of Borås, Sweden
- The University of the Highlands and Islands, Scotland
- The University of Alcalá, Spain
- Digital Connections, Scotland
This resource has been released under Creative Commons license CC-BY-SA 4.0.
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