Working out the monomer from the polymer

jamesthelam

4

How would I get the monomer from this polymer (which I think is formed by condensation polymerisation):

Thank you

Reply 1

lemonlikelime

13

Original post by jamesthelam

How would I get the monomer from this polymer (which I think is formed by condensation polymerisation):

Thank you

Because the polymer is basically repeating units of a monomer, I'm pretty sure you can take two carbons from that polymer and add a double bond in the middle, and the CH3 branches are the repeating units.
If the side groups were different, then you would choose the two carbons which when repeated would give you the pattern in the question.
I don't think I explained it very well so attached a picture haha.

IMG_20170108_113453.jpg518.9KB

Reply 2

jamesthelam

OP

4

Original post by lemonlikelime

Because the polymer is basically repeating units of a monomer, I'm pretty sure you can take two carbons from that polymer and add a double bond in the middle, and the CH3 branches are the repeating units.
If the side groups were different, then you would choose the two carbons which when repeated would give you the pattern in the question.
I don't think I explained it very well so attached a picture haha.

Thank you! I was thinking that since there were four carbons in the brackets there must have been something more complicated going on but maybe they just did that to confuse people :smile:

Reply 3

Pigster

20

If you wanted, you could use 1,1,2,2,3,3,4,4-octamethylcyclobutane.

I expect the yield would be rather low, though.

Reply 4

lemonlikelime

13

Original post by jamesthelam

Thank you! I was thinking that since there were four carbons in the brackets there must have been something more complicated going on but maybe they just did that to confuse people :smile: