Monomer

In chemistry, a monomer (from Greek mono "one" and meros "part") is a small molecule that may become chemically bonded to other monomers to form a polymer.

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Examples of monomers are hydrocarbons such as the alkene and arene (homologous) series.

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Here hydrocarbon monomers such as styrene and ethene form polymers used as plastics like polystyrene and polyethene.

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Amino acids are natural monomers, and polymerize to form proteins. Glucose monomers can also polymerize to form starches, amylopectins and glycogen polymers. In this case the polymerization reaction is known as a dehydration or condensation reaction (due to the formation of water (H2O) as one of the products) where a hydrogen atom and a hydroxyl (-OH) group are lost to form H2O and an oxygen molecule bonds between each monomer unit.

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Note that the lower molecular weight compounds built from monomers are also referred to as dimers, trimers, tetramers, pentamers, octamers, 20-mers, etc. if they have 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, or 20 monomer units, respectively. Any number of these monomer units may be indicated by the appropriate prefix, eg, decamer, being a 10-unit monomer chain or polymer. Larger numbers are often stated in English in lieu of Greek. Polymers with relatively low number of units are called oligomers.

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See also:

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• Oligomer
• Polymer
• Polymerization
• Important publications in polymer chemistry

Chemistry: Chemistry (in Greek: χημεία) is the science of matter that deals with the composition, structure, and properties of substances and with the transformations that they undergo. In the study of matter, chemistry also investigates its interactions with energy and itself (se...

Greek: The noun Greek refers to:...

Molecule: A molecule is the smallest particle of a pure chemical substance that still retains its chemical composition and properties. The science of molecules is called molecular chemistry or molecular physics, depending on the particular aspect of focus. Molecular chemistry is concerned with the laws gover...