Introduction and Nomenclature - Principles of Polymer Chemistry - page 8

Table 1.1 Illustration
of common chain-growth
polymers

Name Monomer Polymer

Polyethylene

n

Polyisobutylene

n

Polystyrene

n

Poly(vinyl chloride)

Cl

n

Cl

Poly(vinyl acetate)

O

n

O

O

O

Poly(methyl methacrylate)

O

n

O

O

O

Polyisoprene

n

prefixed by Greek letters, . They appear before and after the name of the polymer. The

structure of a telomer, like Cl-(-CH 2 -) n -CCl 3 , is, therefore, called

a and v

a -chloro- o -trichloromethyl

poly(methylene).
3. In naming the polymer the following steps are recommended by IUPAC: (1) identify the
constitutional repeating unit, (2) orient the constitutional repeating unit , and (3) name the
constitutional repeating unit.
4. Random copolymers are designated by the prefix co , as in poly(butadiene-

styrene) and poly
(vinyl chloride- co vinyl acetate). Alternating copolymers can be differentiated by substituting

co

alt

for co , as in poly(ethylene- alt -carbon monoxide).

5. The prefix describes block copolymers. In this

system of nomenclature, the first polymer segment corresponds to the homopolymer or copolymer
that was formed during the first stage of the synthesis. Should this be a graft copolymer then this will
represent the backbone polymer. For instance, if polystyrene is graft copolymerized with polyethyl-
ene, the product is called poly(ethylene-

g describes graft copolymers and the prefix b

g -styrene). A more complex example can be poly(butadi-

-vinylidine chloride). Similarly, examples of block copolymers
would be poly(acrylonitrile- b -methyl methacrylate) or poly(methyl methacrylate- b -acrylonitrile).
6. Conventional prefixes indicating cis and trans isomers are placed in front of the polymer name.
An example is

ene- co -styrene- g -acrylonitrile- co

cis -1,4-polybutadiene, or in trans -1,4-polyisoprene.