Polymers

"Polymer" comes from the Greek polumeres, meaning "having many parts" -- an apt name, since a polymer's identity is described entirely in terms of its repeating structural unit, called a monomer. A polymer consists of a very large number of these monomer units, derived from a simple starting molecule and strung together. PVC (poly vinyl chloride), for example, is the polymer obtained from the small monomer vinyl chloride, repeated over and over. …