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Which of these homologous series can form addition polymers? A - OCR Gateway - GCSE Chemistry - Question 10 - 2023 - Paper 4
Question 10
Which of these homologous series can form addition polymers? A. Alcohols and carboxylic acids B. Alkenes and alkanes C. Alkenes only D. Carboxylic acids only Yo... show full transcript
Worked Solution & Example Answer:Which of these homologous series can form addition polymers? A - OCR Gateway - GCSE Chemistry - Question 10 - 2023 - Paper 4
Step 1
Alkenes only
Answer
Alkenes are compounds that contain a carbon-carbon double bond (C=C), which makes them reactive and capable of undergoing addition reactions. In these reactions, the double bond can open up, allowing the alkene molecules to link together and form long chains, which is the essence of addition polymerization.
Other series, such as alcohols and carboxylic acids, do not undergo addition polymerization because their functional groups—hydroxyl (-OH) and carboxyl (-COOH)—do not have the necessary structure to facilitate addition reactions in the same way that double bonds do. Therefore, the only series that can form addition polymers is alkenes.