BIOPOLYMERS

“BIOPOLYMERS”
Bio-degradable Polymers

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 Biopolymers
● Naturally occuring polymers
● Integral part of living things
● Developed from living things
● Regarded as most organic compound in the
ecosphere
● One of the alternatives of fossil fuels
● Older than synthetic polymers

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 7A
Monosaccharides
to Polysaccharides
 ● Nature has abundance of compounds of form
Cx(H2O)y
● These compounds are variously known as sugars,
carbohydrates, and (mono-/di-/polysaccharides)
○ Latin: saccharum “sugar”
● Monosaccharides - single saccharide (simple
sugar, simplest carbohydrate)
● Disaccharides - two monosaccharide
● Polysaccharide - contrains many
monosaccharide units
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 Summary of Carbohydrates

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 Glycosidic linkage - links monomer units to form
disaccharides and polysaccharides
- formed by condensation reaction (water
molecule is released)

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 7B
Polysaccharides: Starches
and Glycogen
 Plant Starch

● stored in protein-covered granules until

glucose is needed for synthesis.
● If granules are ruptured it yields two starches
- amylose and amylopectin.
● Natural starches - 25% amylose, 75%
amylopectin
● Broken down by enzyme amylases into
dextrins (food additives) and glucose
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 Amylose Amylopection
✘ Condensation polymer ✘ Branched-chain
✘ Average of 200 glucose polymer
monomers ✘ 1000 glucose
monomers

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 7C
Cellulose, a Polysaccharide
 Cellulose
● Most abundant organic compound on Earth
● Found in “woody” part of trees, and supporting
material in plants and leaves
● Cotton - purest form of cellulose
● Composed of D-glucose monomer units
● The -OH groups at carbons 1 and 4 are in trans
position results to every other glucose unit is turned
over (while in amylose they are in cis position)
● The structure difference causes starch to be
digested and not cellulose
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State one major difference
between proteins and synthetic
polyamides
Question 76
 Synthetic Polyamides Protein

Polymers where monomers A natural polymer made up

come together to form of amino acide monomers
amide links also known as joined together by peptide
peptide bonds bonds

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