Polymer Science and Polymer Chemistry

Recent Advances in Polymer Chemistry

Polymer Chemistry is the branch of chemistry which deals with large molecules made up of repeating units referred to as monomers. The scope of Polymer Chemistry extends from oligomers with only a few repeating units to very long chain polymers with thousands or millions of repeating units. Polymer Chemistry includes branches which mimic the divisions of the field of chemistry as a whole, with synthetic (preparation methods) and physical (property determination), biological (proteins, polysaccharides, and polynucleic acids), and analytical (qualitative and quantitative analysis) chemistry. Pre-existing polymers can also be modified by chemical means - including grafting or functionalization reactions. Polymerization and modification reactions can be employed to produce designer polymers as new materials with practically any desired properties