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A-Level Addition and condensation polymers, and proteins
What the A-Level syllabus expects for Addition and condensation polymers, and proteins, and how to practise it.
What the syllabus expects
- Recognise a polymer as a macromolecule assembled from monomers, averaging a relative molecular mass of 1000 or more, or 100 or more repeat units.
- Sort polymers into addition types, such as poly(alkenes), and condensation types, such as polyesters and polyamides, and explain how the two differ.
- Describe proteins as condensation polymers whose alpha-amino acid monomers link through peptide (amide) bonds.
- Describe how a protein hydrolyses with aqueous acid or aqueous alkali and heat.
- Recognise that the chemical inertness of poly(alkenes) makes them hard to biodegrade.
Scope: see also 11.3(c) - Recognise that polyesters and polyamides usually break down by hydrolysis.
Scope: connects with 11.9(h)(i) and 11.8(h) - Appreciate that materials form only a finite resource, so recycling plastics matters on economic, environmental and social grounds.
How it's examined
About 2% of the past-paper style questions in Rae's bank for this subject sit in this topic.
More A-Level H2 Chemistry topics
The make-up of the atom and how its electrons are arranged · How atoms bond and how that governs a substance's behaviour · Ideal gases and working with gas mixtures · Competing definitions of acids and bases · Trends in the elements across a period and down a group · The mole and reacting-quantity calculations · all of A-Level H2 Chemistry