Title: vinyl polymer
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - vinyl polymer
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.15262
Status: current

Definition
Polymer prepared from a monomer containing the vinyl group \(\ce{-CH=CH2}\).

Notes
1) Macromolecule of a regular vinyl homopolymer is described by the constitutional repeating unit: \(\ce{-CHR-CH2\bond{-}}\), where \(\ce{R}\) is alkyl, aryl, heteroaryl, halogen, or a heteroatom containing pendent group.
2) Acrylic polymers, polyolefins, polyvinyl acetals, polyvinyl esters, polyvinyl ethers, polyvinyl halides, polyvinyl ketones, and styrene polymers, with \(\ce{R^{\upalpha} = \ce{H}}\) are subclasses of vinyl polymers.

Related Terms
- Acrylic polymers: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/15244
- polyolefins: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/15255
- polyvinyl acetals: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/15256
- polyvinyl esters: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/15257
- polyvinyl ethers: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/15258
- polyvinyl halides: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/15259
- polyvinyl ketones: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/15260
- styrene polymers: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/15261

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/15262/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/15262/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/15262/xml

Citation: Citation: 'vinyl 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.15262
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Accessed: 2026-04-20T10:38:23+00:00