Question

What is polymer cotton?

Answer 1

Hint: Cotton is composed of a natural polymer called cellulose which is linear and extracted from plants. The monomer unit in polymer cotton is cellobiose. Using the polymerization process, these cellobiose units are combined to form polymer cotton.

Complete answer:
The monomeric unit cellobiose consists of two glucose units. These glucose units are combined to each other via a condensation process in such a way that \[C4\] of one glucose unit is condensed with \[C1\] of another glucose unit. This bond between two glucose units is called glycosidic bond. This bond is illustrated by the following diagram:

Around \[5000\]cellobiose units are combined to each other via condensation process (polymerization) in a linear manner to form polymer cotton. Therefore, Polymer cotton is illustrated as follows:

Additional Information:
The word “Polymer” is taken from Greek language in which “Poly” refers to “many” and “mer” refers to units. Therefore, polymer is a macromolecule which consists of a large number of repeating units. This repeating unit is called monomer. There are two types of polymer
1) Natural polymers: These polymers are extracted from plants and animals. For example: Polymer cotton.
2) Synthetic polymers: These polymers are made by man. For example: Vulcanized rubber.

Note:
It is important to note that the monomeric unit present in polymer cotton is cellobiose. This cellobiose is composed of two glucose units which are combined in such a way that \[C4\] of one glucose unit is condensed with \[C1\] of other glucose units. The linkage between two glucose units is called glycosidic linkage.