Polymeric Materials

What are polymeric materials?

Polymers are made up of smaller units called "mers" that are joined together either naturally or synthetically to form larger macromolecules. Natural polymers are wood, cotton, and silk. Manmade polymers are plastics, adhesives, and synthetic rubber. Both natural and manmade polymers are formed when monomer units are joined through the process called polymerizaton into long chains.

***insert pic of monomer to produce polymers i.e. styrene mer to polystyrene***

***activity: can you combine these monomer units to form a polystyrene macromolecule?***

 

Useful engineering properties of polymers

varying strengths
varying stiffness
poor conductors