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Polymers Introduction Polymers are made up of small molecules called monomers which join together in a large chain to create the polymer. The word comes from Greek: poly means 'many' and mer comes from 'merous' which roughly means 'parts'. So basically, the word polymer means to have 'many parts'. History of Polymers Polymers have been around since the beginning of time. It has appeared in nature in the forms of proteins, starches, cellulose and latex. During the 1800s, natural polymers began to be chemically modified to produce other products such as rubber, gun cotton and celluloid. The first synthetic polymer was produced in 1909; called Bakelite which could be moulded at a high temperature and it would retain its shape once cooled. But it wasn't until the World War I that significant changes took place in the polymer industry. Natural polymers were becoming difficult to obtain and so the production of synthetic polymers became...

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