2Chemical Abstracts Service, Columbus, Ohio 43210

The purpose of this article is to inform the Polymer Materials Science and Engineering readership about the status of polymer related nomenclature. Most of us who were trained in organic chemistry as undergraduates were introduced to the International Union Pure and Applied Chemistry system of nomenclature. What very many practicing polymer scientists and engineers do not know is that a corresponding nomenclature exists for polymers.^1-8 The guiding organization is the IUPAC Commission on Macromolecular Nomenclature. Many countries have corresponding or feeder organizations. For example, the ACS Polymer Chemistry Division maintains the Nomenclature Committee with one of us (WVM) as the current chairman. The Polymer Materials Science and Engineering (PMSE) Division is cooperating, with the other one of us (LHS) serving as its representative.

The nomenclature covers ordinary linear polymers,^5,6 copolymers, including statistical copolymers, and graft and block copolymers,⁷ and inorganic polymers.⁸ The entire field has recently been reviewed^1-3 and consolidated in a single compendium.⁴

There are several approaches to chemical nomenclature. and polymer nomenclature especially. The two most important are the source-based and the structure-based schemes. The popular source-based nomenclature emphasizes the monomer name. Examples include: polystyrene, poly(vinyl chloride), poly(methyl methacrylate). The reader should note that multi-worded monomer names take parentheses; polyvinyl chloride is incorrect, as is polyvinylchloride, although both are common enough in the literature, to the confusion of many.

The structure-based names are frequently more complicated. While the systematic name poly(iminoadipoyliminohexamethylene) seems to have gotten short shrift compared to the common name nylon-66, with the advent of liquid crystalline polymers, high temperature polymers, etc., numbering in the thousands, it is clear that a systematic naming system is the only way to save our sanity, and make things clear to the beginner.

Nomenclature extends beyond the formal names of compounds now, however. For example, there are lists of trade names,^9,10 abbreviations,^11,12 and terms relating to crystalline polymers.¹³

Since the PMSE readership is strongly concerned with copolymers. a few examples from that branch of nomenclature will be given.⁷ This system makes use of a series of connectives and sequencing, as illustrated below:

There are several comments to Table 1. First of all, the connectives are to be italicized. Those sequences involving individual mers have the connective between the mers. For sequences involving long chains which are themselves polymeric, both portions take the poly- prefix. A few examples include:

Poly(styrene-stat-butadiene) , the statistical copolymer

Polystyrene-block-polybutadiene, the block copolymer

Note that in the old days, the block copolymer was indicated by poly(styrene-b-butadiene), which lacks clarity. The connective -co- used to mean statistical copolymer to many people, but now means unknown or unspecified compositions.

Newer nomenclature now being considered by the IUPAC Commission on Macromolecular Nomenclature includes polymer networks with the prefix net-, interpenetrating polymer networks with the connective -inter-, and blends, with the connective -blend-, among many others.

In summary, there is a significant amount of nomenclature out there for everybody’s use. Please help avoid confusion!

1. N. M. Bikales, "Nomenclature," in Encyclopedia of Polymer Science and Engineering, 2nd ed., John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1987; Vol. 10, p. 191.
2. A. D. Jenkins and K. L. Loening, "Nomenclature," in Comprehensive Polymer Science, Pergamon Press, Oxford, 1989; Vol. 1, p. 13.
3. R. B. Fox, "Naming Organic Polymers," in Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, 73rd ed., CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida, 1992; p. 13-1.
4. IUPAC, Compendium of Macromolecular Nomenclature, W. V. Metanomski, Ed., Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford, 1991; available in the U.S. from CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida.
5. IUPAC, "A Classification of Linear Single-Strand Polymers (Recommendations 1988)," Pure Appl. Chem., 61, 243-254 (1989); reprinted as Chapter 8 in Ref. 4.
6. IUPAC, "Nomenclature of Regular Single-Strand Organic Polymers (Recommendations 1975)," Pure Appl. Chem., 48, 373-385 (1976); reprinted as Chapter 5 in Ref. 4.
7. IUPAC, "Source-Based Nomenclature for Copolymers (Recommendations 1985)," Pure Appl. Chem., 57, 1427-1440 (1985); reprinted as Chapter 7 in Ref. 4.
8. IUPAC, "Nomenclature for Regular Single-Strand and Quasi-Single-Strand Inorganic and Coordination polymers (Recommendations 1984)," Pure Appl. Chem., 57, 149-168 (1985); reprinted as Chapter 6 in Ref. 4.
9. M. Ash and I. Ash (Eds.), "Encyclopedia of Plastics, Polymers, and Resins," Chemical Publishing, New York, 1982.
10. H.-G. Elias and R. A. Pethrick (Eds.), "Polymer Yearbook," Harwood Academic Publishers, New York, 1984; p. 113.
11. IUPAC, "Use of Abbreviations for Names of Polymeric Substances (Recommendations 1986)," Pure Appl. Chem., 59, 691-693 (1987); reprinted as Chapter 9 in Ref. 4.
12. Nomenclature Committee, ACS Division of Polymer Chemistry, "Abbreviations for Thermoplastics, Thermosets, Fibers, Elastomers, and Additives," Polym. News, 9, 101 (1983); Polym. News, 10, 169 (1985).
13. IUPAC, "Definitions of Terms Relating to Crystalline Polymers (Recommendations 1988)," Pure Appl. Chem., 61, 769-785 (1989); reprinted as Chapter 4 in Ref. 4.

First published: ACS Division of Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering (PMSE), 68, 341 (1993).