Polymers and Plastics

Polymers and plastics:

Polymers are large chains of monomers (such as ethene) which bond together.
Alkene monomers are made from the process of cracking long chain alkanes.

After fractional distillation of crude oil, the fractions can be cracked -thus makes small, unsaturated molecules (alkenes). These can be used to make polymers.

Remember that poly means many, mono means one and mer means part.

Types of plastic:

Thermoplastic: a plastic which can easily be melted down and molded into other shapes.

Thermosetting: a plastic which is not easy to manipulate, as once it cools it stays in one position.

Naming polymers:
Naming a polymer is easy, just take the name of the monomer, stick it in a bracket and put the…