A team of materials scientists and engineers at ETH Zurich has developed a light-triggered chemical process for breaking down certain polymers into their constituent monomers. The paper is published ...

A new method allows chemists to precisely place single monomers at any position within a polymer chain made of other types of monomers. With this single monomer, chemists can add various types of ...

Carbohydrate polymers possess the general chemical formula Cn(H2O)m, in that there are generally two hydrogen atoms for every oxygen atom, though the ratio between n and m may vary, and not all ...

Chemists have synthesized a novel class of carbohydrate polymers that could help retain the function of enzymes and protein drugs during storage (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2014, DOI: 10.1021/ja5036804). When ...

Researchers at Hokkaido University have taken a significant step forward in the drive to make recyclable yet stable plastics from plant materials. This is a key requirement to reduce the burden of ...

Biopolymers include any polymers produced by living cells, constructed from repeating monomers that are linked together to form a longer chain. Examples of monomers include nucleic acids, sugars, ...

Polymers are also called macromolecules, being very large organic molecules composed of an extremely high number of repeating smaller units called monomers. Their applications are widespread, and ...

Polysaccharides are abundant, biological polymers composed of monosaccharides, or sugars. These are a diverse group of naturally-occurring materials and have been used in many applications, ranging ...

Hermann Staudinger was a pacifist, but this was one fight he was determined to win. In 1920, the German chemist proposed that polymers—a broad class of compounds that included rubber and ...