Polymer: Definition and its general characteristic

Ilustration of how polymer was formed from monomer throughout polymerization

Our daily life is comprised by many chemical compounds including polymer. We use plastic to carry goods or something, the plastic is polymer compound. Sometimes, we use basket for storing the water or doing the laundry, the tools we used is polymer. There are so many daily tools, furniture, and equipment that are manufactured with combination of polymers. So, what is polymer?

Definition of polymer has been defining by many experts and scientist. Although it has different meaning, scientists agree that every polymer has small repeating unit. Therefore, the definition of polymer is a chemical substance composed with large molecules and those form repetitive units of bonding in term of covalent bonding. Regarding the process of fabrication, polymer is divided onto two types. Firstly, it is natural polymer which can be found in nature such as polysaccharide, natural rubber and many variety of biopolymers. The second is synthetic polymer which is fabricated by scientist to obtain certain characteristics.

While the chemical structure providing its composition, the repetitive chain affects the general characteristics. Mostly, polymers have strong mechanical properties because of the bonding within theirs repeating unit. However, there are some of polymers which have weak mechanical properties, for instance, DNA in our chromosome. But more importantly, the large numbers of macromolecule which form the repeating chain provides their properties.

In general, the macromolecule forms repeat units. If this macromolecule is divided, then we will find smaller repeating units called monomers. Hence, monomers are the main identity of the polymer, but if the monomer generate the exact repeating structures, we called it as homopolymer. Whereas, if the monomers are consisted by several kinds of monomers, it will provide the copolymers. However, in biopolymer, the macromolecule is not identical in structure to the monomers, because a small molecule could be eliminated from the monomers during incorporation into the polymer.

In polymers, the presence of carbon atoms forming chemical chain is important constituent so it can produce monomer. The carbon atoms are normally bonded to four atoms or chemical substances which can be arranged in form of tetrahedral as carbon atom consists four free electrons. The arrangement depends on the chemical condition.

To conclude, a polymer can be created artificially or naturally depending on the process. Polymer has general characteristics including the monomer, the type of macromolecule and the presence of carbon atoms forming the monomer. But, more importantly, a polymer also consists the same sequence of monomer residues, the exact position and length of branches and the same degree of polymerization.

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[1] Image is downloaded from https://socratic.org/