A monomer (from Greek mono "one" and meros "part") is a small molecule that may become chemically bonded to other monomers to form a polymer.^[1] The most common natural monomer is glucose, which is linked by glycosidic bonds into polymers such as cellulose and starch, and is over 76% of the weight of all plant matter.^[2]

Contents 1 Natural monomers 2 Molecular weight 3 See also 4 Notes 5 External links

[edit] Natural monomers

Amino acids are natural monomers and polymerize to form proteins. Nucleotides, monomers found in the cell nucleus, polymerize to form nucleic acids - most famously, DNA and RNA. Glucose monomers can polymerize to form starches, amylopectins and glycogen polymers. In this case the polymerization reaction is known as a dehydration or condensation reaction (due to the formation of water (H₂O) as one of the products) where a hydrogen atom and a hydroxyl (-OH) group are lost to form H₂O and an oxygen molecule bonds between each monomer unit.

Isoprene is a natural monomer and polymerizes to form natural rubber, most often cis-1,4-polyisoprene, but also trans-1,4-polyisoprene.

[edit] Molecular weight

The lower molecular weight compounds built from monomers are also referred to as dimers, trimers, tetramers, pentamers, octamers, 20-mers, etc. if they have 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, or 20 monomer units, respectively. ^[3] Any number of these monomer units may be indicated by the appropriate prefix, eg, decamer, being a 10-unit monomer chain or polymer. Larger numbers are often stated in English in lieu of Greek. Polymers with relatively low number of units are called oligomers.

[edit] See also

• Oligomer
• Dimer
• Trimer
• Tetramer
• Polymer
• Polymerization
• List of publications in polymer chemistry

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

• Polymer Structure