Title: styrene polymer
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - styrene polymer
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.15261
Status: current

Definition
Polymer prepared from styrene, or a substituted styrene, or both in admixture.



Notes
1) Macromolecule of a regular styrene homopolymer is described by the constitutional repeating unit:  where \(\ce{R^{\upalpha}}\) and \(\ce{R^1}\) to \(\ce{R^5}\) are each \(\ce{H}\), alkyl, aryl, or heteroaryl.
2) Styrene polymers are a subclass of vinyl polymers.
3) In common usage, "polystyrene" means a polymer prepared from pure styrene, frequently cross-linked with 1,4-divinylbenzene, rather than a styrene polymer.

Related Term
- vinyl polymers: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/15262

Source
- PAC, 2009, 81, 1131. 'Glossary of class names of polymers based on chemical structure and molecular architecture (IUPAC Recommendations 2009)' on page 1145 (https://doi.org/10.1351/PAC-REC-08-01-30)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/15261/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/15261/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/15261/xml

Citation: Citation: 'styrene polymer' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.15261
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Accessed: 2026-04-20T11:55:01+00:00