Title: alternating copolymer
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - alternating copolymer
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.A00250
Status: current

Definition
A copolymer consisting of macromolecules comprising two species of monomeric units in alternating sequence.

Note
An alternating copolymer may be considered as a homopolymer derived from an implicit or hypothetical monomer.

Related Terms
- copolymer: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/C01335
- homopolymer (Note 1): https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/H02854
- macromolecules: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/M03667
- monomer: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/M04017
- monomeric units: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/M04018
- sequence: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/ST06775

Source
- PAC, 1996, 68, 2287. 'Glossary of basic terms in polymer science (IUPAC Recommendations 1996)' on page 2301 (https://doi.org/10.1351/pac199668122287)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/A00250/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/A00250/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/A00250/xml

Citation: Citation: 'alternating copolymer' 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.A00250
License: The IUPAC Gold Book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) for individual terms.
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Disclaimer: The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using.
Accessed: 2026-07-27T03:16:44+00:00