Vinyl polymer

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Vinyl polymers are a group of polymers derived from vinyl monomers. Their backbone is a giant alkane chain, made by polymerizing an ethelyne group (C=C) into a chain (..-C-C-C-C-..). In popular usage, "vinyl" refers only to PVC. Vinyl polymers are the most common type of plastic.

• Polymerized simple alkenes: polyethylene from ethene, polypropylene from propene and polybutadiene from butadiene.
• Polystyrene is made from styrene or "vinyl benzene".
• Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) is made by polymerization of the monomer vinyl chloride (chloroethene) CH₂=CHCl
• Polyvinyl acetate (PVAc) is made by polymerization of vinyl acetate. In a water suspension, this is used as a glue.
• Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) is produced by hydrolysis of polyvinyl acetate. (Not by polymerization of the monomer vinyl alcohol or ethenol, which is a unfavored keto-enol tautomer of acetaldehyde.)

Vinyl polymer products (such as these records) come in many colors.