Monomers, mostly organic, are a type of molecules that have the ability to chemically bond with other molecules in a long chain. Monomers are usually unsaturated, cyclic or contain two or more functional groups of low molecular compounds, mainly including acrylic, epoxy, styrene, alcohol, acid anhydride, etc. They are the most important raw materials to polymers by forming chemical bonds or binding supramolecular through a process called polymerization.

Polymerization Reactions

There are two basic types of polymerization, chain reaction (or addition) and step reaction (or condensation) polymerization (figure 1).

Fig. 1 Types of polymerization reactions