Page 33 - Carrahers_Polymer_Chemistry,_Eighth_Edition

xxxii Polymer Nomenclature

Following is a longer version that can be used if hard copy or electronic version of CA is
available.
In searching, polymers from a single monomer are indexed as the monomer name with the
term “homopolymer” cited in the modification. Thus, polymers of 1-pentene are listed under the

monomer
1-Pentene
homopolymer

Polymers formed from two or more monomers, such as condensation polymers and copolymers,
and homopolymers are indexed at each inverted monomer name with the modifying term “poly-
mer with” followed by the other monomer names in uninverted alphabetical order. The preferential
listing for identical heading parents is in the order: (a) maximum number of substituents, (b) lowest
locants for substituents, (c) maximum number of occurrences of index heading parent, and (d) ear-
liest index position of the index heading. Examples are

1-Pentene
polymer with 1-hexene
2,5-Furandione
polymer with 1,4-butanedisulfonic acid
Silane, dichlorodiethyl-
polymer with dichlorodiphenylsilane

While the percentage composition of copolymers (i.e., the ratio of comonomers) is not given,
copolymers with architecture other than random or statistical are identified as “alternating, block,

graft, and so forth.” Random or statistical copolymer are not so identified in the CA index. Oligomers

with definite structure are noted as dimer, trimer, tetramer, and so on.

Often similar information is found at several sites. For instance, for copolymers of 1-butene and
1-hexene, information will be listed under both 1-butene and 1-hexene, but the listings are not iden-
tical so both entries should be consulted for completeness.
CA’s policy for naming acetylenic, acrylic, methacrylic, ethylenic, and vinyl polymers is to use
the source-based method, and source-based representation is used to depict the polymers graph-
ically; thus a synonym for polyethylene is polyethylene and not poly(1,2-ethanediyl); a synonym
polypropylene is polypropylene, and poly(vinyl alcohol) is named ethenol, homopolymer although
ethenol does not exist. Thus, these polymers are named and represented structurally by the source-
based method, not the structure-based method.

EXAMPLES
Following are examples that illustrate CAS guidelines of naming.

–(CH –) – Poly(methylene)
2 n
–(CH –CH –) – Poly(ethylene)
2 2 n
–(CH=CH–) – Poly(1,2-ethenediyl)
n
O O
−CH −) −
—
—
—
—
−(−C−C−CH 2 2 n Poly1,2-dioxo-1,4-butanediyl
−(−CH=CH−CH−CH −) −
n
2
—
CH 3 Poly(3-methyl-1-butene-1,4-diyl)

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