Poly- means many, so like a string of pearls, a polymer is a stringof chemically bonded monomers: amino acids in proteins, sugars inpolysaccharides, strands of nylon and polya
…cetate, polypropylene,and let us not neglect or omit DNA [polynucleotides] and Rna. A polymer is a chemical compound or mixture of compounds consistingof repeating structural units created through a process ofpolymerization. The units comprising polymers derive, actually or conceptually,from molecules of low relative molecular mass. The terms polymer and polymeric material encompass very large,broad classes of compounds, both natural and synthetic, with a widevariety of properties. Because of the extraordinary range ofproperties of polymeric materials, they play an essential andubiquitous role in everyday life, from those of familiar syntheticplastics and other materials of day-to-day work and home life, tothe natural biopolymers that are fundamental to biologicalstructure and function. (MORE)