Understanding Monomer Connections: Where Non-Chemists Can Look

[ragnarokas]

Where non-chemist could find such info, for example? I need to understand the angles at which these monomers connect with each other. Appreciate any insights,

 

[TeethWhitener]

The polymer backbone is made up of relatively unstrained, unhindered sp³ hybridized carbons, so the bond angles will be pretty close to that of other tetrahedrally coordinated centers (~109.5 degrees or so).

 

[ragnarokas]

The polymer backbone is made up of relatively unstrained, unhindered sp³ hybridized carbons, so the bond angles will be pretty close to that of other tetrahedrally coordinated centers (~109.5 degrees or so).

Thank you very much for your attention. Please look to my schematics: do I understand correctly: if we say that red X axis goes along the monomer, so they will connect approx ~110 degrees. However, of course, the monomer unit may freely rotate around Y and Z axis and get any kind of angle ( in the schematics both rotations Y and Z is equal to zero). Do I get this right?

 

[TeethWhitener]

Each carbon will be at the apex of a roughly 110-degree angle, and there are two (backbone) carbons in each monomer. You might want to take a look at some basic physical models of polymers, starting with the ideal chain model:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ideal_chain
Polymer physics is quite a bit more complicated than this, but it’ll get you started.