Polymers

Polymers are long chains of REPEATING UNITS known as monomers.

These atoms within the chains are held together by COVALENT BONDS, creating LARGE MOLECULES with unique properties.

These LONG CHAINED MOLECULES are very LARGE so have very STRONG INTERMOLECULAR FORCES which require A LOT of energy to overcome.

This results in polymers having HIGH melting and boiling points which means they are usually SOLIDS at room temperature.

Polymers can be represented as molecular formulas using the following format:

This shows the REPEATING UNIT of the polymer poly(ethene). The structure within the brackets is repeated several times to give the structure of the polymer.

The molecular formula of poly(ethene) is (C₂H₄)_n.