What is the chemical structure of plastic?
Structure. Most plastics contain organic polymers. The vast majority of these polymers are formed from chains of carbon atoms, with or without the attachment of oxygen, nitrogen or sulfur atoms. These chains comprise many repeating units formed from monomers.
What is polymer chemical structure?
A polymer is composed of many simple molecules that are repeating structural units called monomers. A single polymer molecule may consist of hundreds to a million monomers and may have a linear, branched, or network structure. Copolymers are polymers composed of two or more different types of monomers.
What polymers are in plastics?
Synthetic polymers include polyethylene (used in plastic bags); polystyrene (used to make Styrofoam cups); polypropylene (used for fibers and bottles); polyvinyl chloride (used for food wrap, bottles, and drain pipe); and polytetrafluoroethylene, or Teflon (used for nonstick surfaces).
What are the three structure of polymers?
The four basic polymer structures are linear, branched, crosslinked, and networked.
Are plastics chemically inert?
Most plastic is chemically inert and will not react chemically with other substances — you can store alcohol, soap, water, acid or gasoline in a plastic container without dissolving the container itself. Because plastic doesn’t react chemically with most other substances, it doesn’t decay.
What is the chemical bond of plastic?
Chemists combine various atoms to make molecules, which are simply two or more atoms held together by chemical bonds. When making plastics, these molecules generally are called monomers. These monomers then are combined by chemical bonds into a chain or a network—this is called polymerization.
What is the name of the monomer in the polymer polyethylene?
ethylene
For polyethylene, arguably the simplest polymer, this is demonstrated by the following equation. Here ethylene (ethene) is the monomer, and the corresponding linear polymer is called high-density polyethylene (HDPE).
What is the strongest polymer structure?
Polymer Properties Polymeric chain molecules contain atomic groups, covalently bonded in the chain direction. In most polymers the covalent bonds have approximately the same strength as the C–C bond in diamond, which is the strongest material in nature.
How is synthetic polymers made?
Synthetic polymers are produced by chemical reactions, termed “polymerizations.” Polymerizations occur in varied forms–far too many to examine here–but such reactions consist of the repetitive chemical bonding of individual molecules, or monomers. Co-polymers can be formed using two or more different monomers.
Why are polymers chemically inert?
Comparing polymers produced via the two different mechanisms, addition polymers are generally chemically inert due to the relatively strong carbon-carbon bonds that are formed.
What are the chemical elements of plastic?
Phthalate. The first list of chemicals in plastic is Phthalate,the esters of phthalic acid.
What is the chemical equation of plastic?
This is a plastic that has the following chemical formula: CH2=CHCl (see picture on the right). Plastic covers a wide rage of synthetic or semi-synthetic polymerization products (i.e. long-chain carbon-based “organic” molecules) which name refers to the fact that in their semi-liquid state they are malleable, or have the property of plasticity.
What is the chemical process for making plastic?
Monomers fall into the class of chemicals known as petrochemicals . Plastics are produced using a process called polymerization, where many thousands of monomers are joined together to form a polymer chain. Monomers are made of atoms like chlorine, nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen and sulphur.
What are the chemicals used in making plastics?
The Hazards Lurking at Home