BharatNotes Polymer
noun (also used attributively, e.g. "polymer chemistry")Usage in a UPSC answer
India's push for a circular economy hinges on weaning packaging industries off single-use synthetic polymers, whose persistence in soil and waterways imposes ecological costs that markets alone seldom internalise.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Word Family
polymeric (adj), polymerize (v), polymerization (n), polymerism (n), polymerous (adj)
Root
Greek polus = many; meros = part; coined by Berzelius 1833
Etymology
From Greek polus (many) + meros (part); the term was coined by Swedish chemist Jons Jacob Berzelius in 1833.
Memory Hook
POLY ("many") + MER (Greek meros, "part") = a chain of MANY PARTS — like many beads strung into one necklace.
How This Word Works in UPSC Writing
A macromolecule built from many repeating units joined by covalent bonds. Three classifications matter, and the third carries the policy weight. By source, polymers are natural such as cellulose, starch, protein and natural rubber, synthetic such as polythene, PVC and nylon, or semi-synthetic such as rayon. By structure they are linear, branched or cross-linked, and the degree of cross-linking largely sets rigidity. By behaviour on heating they divide into thermoplastics, which soften and can be remoulded repeatedly, and thermosetting plastics, which set irreversibly and cannot, and that single distinction determines what is mechanically recyclable and what is not. The environmental irony worth stating is that the strong carbon backbone giving plastics their durability is precisely what makes them resistant to microbial breakdown, so the useful property and the harmful one are the same property.
Don’t Confuse It With
A polymer is the long chain, a monomer the repeating unit and an oligomer a short chain of only a few units. Polymerisation is the reaction forming the chain, and it takes two forms: addition polymerisation, in which monomers containing double bonds join with no by-product, and condensation polymerisation, in which a small molecule such as water is eliminated at each linkage. A thermoplastic softens on heating and can be remoulded, while a thermosetting plastic hardens permanently. An elastomer is a polymer that recovers its shape after being stretched.
Hindi Meaning
बहुलक (bahulak); बहुलकीकरण for polymerisation.
Common Questions
- What is the difference between thermoplastic and thermosetting plastics?
- Thermoplastics soften on heating and can be remelted and remoulded, while thermosetting plastics set permanently on first curing and cannot be reshaped.
- Why are most plastics non-biodegradable?
- Because the strong carbon to carbon backbone that gives them durability is not readily broken by the enzymes microorganisms possess.
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