Standardized Polymer Nomenclature
There are multiple conventions for naming polymer substances. Many commonly used polymers, such as those found in consumer products, are referred to by a common or trivial name. The trivial name is assigned based on historical precedent or popular usage rather than a standardized naming convention. Both the American Chemical Society (ACS) and IUPAC have proposed standardized naming conventions; the ACS and IUPAC conventions are similar but not identical. Examples of the differences between the various naming conventions are given in the table below:
| Common name | ACS name | IUPAC name |
|---|---|---|
| Poly(ethylene oxide) or PEO | Poly(oxyethylene) | Poly(oxyethene) |
| Poly(ethylene terephthalate) or PET | Poly(oxy-1,2-ethanediyloxycarbonyl-1,4-phenylenecarbonyl) | Poly(oxyetheneoxyterephthaloyl) |
| Nylon 6 | Poly | Poly |
In both standardized conventions, the polymers' names are intended to reflect the monomer(s) from which they are synthesized rather than the precise nature of the repeating subunit. For example, the polymer synthesized from the simple alkene ethene is called polyethylene, retaining the -ene suffix even though the double bond is removed during the polymerization process:
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