What is a Polymer?
What is a polymer? That is the question. If you don't know what a polymer is, just look to your surroundings. Plastics, Polystyrene, PVC, and rubber are all polymers. To fully understand the definition of a polymer you must first look at what makes a polymer. Monomers are the smaller molecules that bond together to form a polymer. Monomers repeat one after the other to form a polymer. So, a polymer is a large molecule that is made of smaller ones that usually repeat. The small molecules are called monomers. And if you didn't know there are two types of polymers.
Man-Made Polymers
Man-Made polymers are exactly what they sound like. Polymers that were created by mankind. Many things that humans use are man-made or synthetic. Some of the "synthetic" polymers that humans use are like Polyester, Spandex, nylon which are all man-made/synthetic fibers used for clothing and carpeting. Man-made polymers also keep people safe and comfortable. Kevlar is used in bulletproof vests and bulletproof glass is made from polycarbonate. Automobile windshields are made of safety glass, which is a layer of polymer sandwiched between two sheets of glass. The polymer keeps the shards of glass from becoming dangerous projectiles during a collision. Car bumpers are made of polymers that are designed to absorb much of the shock of an impact and polymeric foams are used as seat cushions. Special polymers protect airplane passengers from the deafening roar of the engines. Rubber is a very versatile synthetic polymer. It is an elastomers, which means it can be highly deformed and it will return quickly to its original state when release. Elastic, tires, and rubber bands are examples of things made with rubber.
Natural Polymers
These are polymers that are not man-made, that is polymers that are not synthetic. A Natural polymer is a polymer resulting from raw materials found in nature. Unlike Man-Made polymers, natural polymers are created entirely by naturally occurring materials. Some examples of natural polymers are cellulose, starch, nucleic acid, peptides, lipids, carbohydrates, chitin, proteins, gelatin, RNA, DNA, etc. Natural polymers are all created by living organisms. Without natural polymers all living organism could not survive. We use Natural Polymers for a lot of things. We use nucleic acid to store our genetic information. We use lipids to store energy. We use carbohydrates for energy. Natural Polymers are needed for living organism to survive.