Monomer vs. Polymer

Main Difference

The main difference between Monomer and Polymer is that the Monomer is a molecule that, as a unit, binds chemically or supramolecularly to other molecules to form a supramolecular polymer and Polymer is a chemical compound with repeating structural units.

• Monomer

  A monomer ( MON-ə-mər; mono-, “one” + -mer, “part”) is a molecule that “can undergo polymerization thereby contributing constitutional units to the essential structure of a macromolecule”. Large numbers of monomers combine to form polymers in a process called polymerization.

• Polymer

  A polymer (; Greek poly-, “many” + -mer, “part”) is a large molecule, or macromolecule, composed of many repeated subunits. Due to their broad range of properties, both synthetic and natural polymers play essential and ubiquitous roles in everyday life. Polymers range from familiar synthetic plastics such as polystyrene to natural biopolymers such as DNA and proteins that are fundamental to biological structure and function. Polymers, both natural and synthetic, are created via polymerization of many small molecules, known as monomers. Their consequently large molecular mass relative to small molecule compounds produces unique physical properties, including toughness, viscoelasticity, and a tendency to form glasses and semicrystalline structures rather than crystals.

  The term “polymer” derives from the Greek word πολύς (polus, meaning “many, much”) and μέρος (meros, meaning “part”), and refers to a molecule whose structure is composed of multiple repeating units, from which originates a characteristic of high relative molecular mass and attendant properties. The units composing polymers derive, actually or conceptually, from molecules of low relative molecular mass. The term was coined in 1833 by Jöns Jacob Berzelius, though with a definition distinct from the modern IUPAC definition. The modern concept of polymers as covalently bonded macromolecular structures was proposed in 1920 by Hermann Staudinger, who spent the next decade finding experimental evidence for this hypothesis.Polymers are studied in the fields of biophysics and macromolecular science, and polymer science (which includes polymer chemistry and polymer physics). Historically, products arising from the linkage of repeating units by covalent chemical bonds have been the primary focus of polymer science; emerging important areas of the science now focus on non-covalent links. Polyisoprene of latex rubber is an example of a natural/biological polymer, and the polystyrene of styrofoam is an example of a synthetic polymer. In biological contexts, essentially all biological macromolecules—i.e., proteins (polyamides), nucleic acids (polynucleotides), and polysaccharides—are purely polymeric, or are composed in large part of polymeric components—e.g., isoprenylated/lipid-modified glycoproteins, where small lipidic molecules and oligosaccharide modifications occur on the polyamide backbone of the protein.The simplest theoretical models for polymers are ideal chains.

• Monomer (noun)

  a molecule that can be bonded to other identical molecules to form a polymer.