Chemistry short questions: Polymers

Q.1 What is a polymer?

Ans. Polymers are macromolecules made up of small repeated units called monomers. Polymers exist both in synthetic and natural forms. Examples of natural polymers are proteins, cellulose and DNA. Polyethylene, Teflon and polyester are some examples of synthetic polymers.

Q. 2 What is polymerization?

Ans. Formation of macromolecules having high molecular weight using low molecular weight micro molecules as monomers is specifically called as polymerization. Specified high temperature and pressure along with catalysts are used in polymerization process.

Q. 3 What is a pedant group?

Ans. The group which is attached to the main polymer chain is named as pedant group.

Q. 4 What is a monomer?

Ans. The building block or repeating unit forming the polymer is named as monomer.

Q. 5 Differentiate between isotactic and syndiotactic polymers?

Ans. Isotactic polymers are those which show arrangement of pedant groups on same side of backbone while in contrast syndiotactic polymers are those which possess an alternate arrangement of pedant groups on both sides of backbone of a polymer.

Q. 6 Differentiate between crystalline and amorphous polymers?

Ans. Crystalline polymers are those which possess an ordered arrangement of their structure forming a crystal while amorphous polymers lack orderly arranged groups and do not possess crystalline structure. Thus, these are also known as non-crystalline polymers.

Q. 7 Differentiate between oligomers and polymers?

Ans. An oligomer is a polymer made up of two to ten repeating units or monomers while the other polymers are made up of hundreds of repeating units or monomers.