The structure of vinyl acetate is shown below (the partial structure H₂C=CH-is known as a vinyl group). When polymerized it produces poly(vinyl acetate), a polymer used for the springy soles in running shoes. Draw the structure of the polymer obtained if three vinyl acetate units underwent polymerization.

Question

The structure of vinyl acetate is shown below (the partial structure H₂C=CH-is known as a vinyl group). When polymerized it produces poly(vinyl acetate), a polymer used for the springy soles in running shoes. Draw the structure of the polymer obtained if three vinyl acetate units underwent polymerization.

Chemical structure of vinyl acetate, showing H2C=CH- and the label

Accepted Answer

Hi everyone. Our next problem says the structure of ethene is shown below. And then we have a diagram of ethne. This is a two carbon molecule in which there's a double bond between the two carbons. Then our problem says illustrate how it transforms into polyethylene when three units of ethane combine through polymerization. Athene is commonly used in the synthesis of this widely used plastic material. So we need to think about how polymerization occurs. We know we have three. So I'm putting brackets around my ethane molecule multiplied by three of these units. So in polymerization, you have monomers that have double covalent bonds and these monomers are transferred into polymers by breaking the pi bonds in the monomers, these pi bonds are then replaced with sigma bonds to other monomers. And this is done when heat or light breaks the pie bond and generates free radicals. And the free radicals generated are in the form of carbo CS carbo anions and other intermediate forms. And then the termination of this process comes when the free radicals are used up and we have our polymer. So if we have three ethene units that have become polymerized, we know that the double bond between the two carbons is broken and replaced by single bonds to other molecules. Since we have two carbons in ethne and three monomer ethne units, we know we'd end up with six carbons with single bonds between them. So remembering that those single bonds have that tetrahedral structure. I have this sort of zig zag structure of 123456 carbons from my three Athens. So we just need to add our hydrogens, three hydrogens to each terminal carbon and then two hydrogens to each of the internal carbons. Since we now all have single bonds between our carbons. So we have our structure here with a six carbon unit with single bonds between all of the carbons. See you in the next video.

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Key Concepts

Vinyl Group

Polymerization

Poly(vinyl acetate)