1. Introduction to polymers

We use various materials in our daily lives, made up of different sources, either natural or synthetic. The materials such as brush, shoe, bottles, combs, tv, plastic bags, nylon bags, mobile phones etc. are made from artificial sources. These materials can be biodegradable and non-biodegradable. The use of synthetic materials have been increased and also have become an integral part of our lifestyle.

The sharing of electrons takes place to achieve a stable noble gas configuration is known as a covalent bond.

 

 

The image above shows the formation of a water molecule. Here the oxygen has six outer electrons and hydrogen as one electron. To attain the stable noble gas configuration hydrogen atom combine with the oxygen. The oxygen share two bonds with the two hydrogen atoms each and all of this atom attain a stable noble gas configuration.

 

 

Polymerization: When many monomer units combine together in a reaction, it forms a polymer.

  

 

Let us now see how the polymerization takes place in the video below.

 

 

Let's see whether ice cubes and a polythene bag are polymers.

 

Polythene bag: It is a polymer as it is made up of many monomer units.
 
Ice: The solid-state of water. Here the molecules are tightly packed, and the hydrogen and oxygen molecules are repeated throughout, which is similar to polymer. There are n number of this repeating unit, so water is a polymer.
 
In both the materials, there are large number molecules combined. Therefore both ice and polyethene bags are polymers.