What is Polymerization?
Without polymers, mankind couldn’t exist. People use manmade plastics such as polypropylene and polyvinyl chloride (i.e., PVC) in hospitals, schools and their own homes. Yet, man-made plastic accounts for only a small percentage of polymers. Rubber and cellulose, which are natural polymers, are used to make everything from tires to cellophane to rayon. Deoxyribonucleic acid (i.e., DNA) and protein are also natural polymers. As important as polymers are, they wouldn’t exist without monomers, which are small, single molecules such as hydrocarbons and amino acids. These monomers bond together to form polymers. The process by which these monomers bond is called polymerization. Polymerization isn’t a complicated subject, but the ways in which monomers are put together vary so much that scientists find it easier to have more than one system of describing polymerization. One system of separating polymerization processes asks the question of how much of the original molecule is left when the m
