A synthetic polymer is a polymer manufactured in industry, usually from petroleum products, such as polythene, PVC, polystyrene, nylon and Teflon.
A synthetic polymer is a polymer manufactured in industry rather than formed in living things. Most are made from petroleum products, and the standard examples are polythene, PVC, polystyrene, nylon and Teflon. Malay: polimer sintetik · Chinese: 合成聚合物.
Synthetic polymers are built by the same two processes as any polymer. Polythene, PVC and polystyrene are addition polymers, made when unsaturated monomers add together with nothing released. Nylon and terylene are condensation polymers, made when monomers with two functional groups join and give off a small molecule such as water. Because they can be moulded, drawn into fibres and made hard or flexible to order, synthetic polymers have replaced many natural materials in packaging, clothing, pipes and cookware. The same properties that make them useful, however, also make most of them non-biodegradable.
Example. PVC (poly(chloroethene)) is a synthetic polymer made by addition polymerisation of chloroethene, CH₂=CHCl. It is manufactured on a large scale for pipes, cable insulation and flooring, none of which occur in nature.
Confusion to avoid. Do not confuse synthetic with natural polymers. A synthetic polymer is manufactured, usually from petroleum, while a natural polymer forms in living things. Polythene and nylon are synthetic; rubber, protein and cellulose are natural. Note also that “synthetic” does not mean “addition”, many synthetic polymers, such as nylon, are made by condensation.
The versatility of synthetic polymers comes from small changes in the monomer and the way the chains pack together: polythene made under low pressure is denser and stiffer than the high-pressure kind, while adding chlorine gives the harder, more rigid PVC. Understanding that one family of processes yields such different everyday materials, bags, bottles, pipes, non-stick pans, is exactly the kind of link the extended-response questions reward.
Because synthetic polymers dominate the uses-and-environment part of the chapter, they connect the vocabulary of polymerisation directly to recycling, biodegradable plastics and the problems of open burning, all of which are tested in SPM Chemistry.
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