Animated Solution for Chemistry - Organic Chemistry: Monomers are converted to polymer by

Imagine you have a massive bucket of identical Lego bricks. Individually, they are just small, simple pieces. But if you start snapping them together, end to end, you can build a towering structure.

In chemistry, those individual Lego bricks are called monomers, and the massive, continuous chain you build is called a polymer. The process of linking them together is known as polymerization.

But how exactly do these chemical bricks snap together? Nature and synthetic chemistry generally use two primary methods: Addition and Condensation.

The first method is Addition Polymerization. In this process, monomers simply add together to form a polymer, without losing any atoms. This usually happens with molecules that have double bonds, like ethylene ($C{H}_2=C{H}_2$). The double bond breaks open, and the molecules hold hands to form a long chain of polyethylene.

The second method, which is the focus of our question, is Condensation Polymerization.

Unlike addition, condensation is a bit more dramatic. When two monomers come together to form a bond, they have to "kick out" a small piece of themselves to make room for the new connection.

Let's visualize this. Imagine Monomer A has a hydroxyl group ($-OH$) at its end, and Monomer B has a hydrogen atom ($-H$) at its end.

When they approach each other, the $-OH$ from Monomer A and the $-H$ from Monomer B realize they are highly attracted to each other. They break off from their respective monomers and combine to form a small, stable molecule: water ($H_{2}O$).

Because this small molecule is eliminated or "condensed" out of the main structure, we call it a condensation reaction.

Once the water molecule leaves, the two monomers are left with open bonding sites. They immediately link together, forming a strong polymer linkage (like an ester or amide bond). This process repeats thousands of times, building a massive polymer chain like Nylon or Polyester.

Let's quickly look at the other options to see why they don't fit.

Hydrolysis is the exact opposite of condensation. It involves adding water to a polymer to break it back down into monomers. It destroys polymers; it doesn't create them.

Protonation is simply the addition of a proton ($H^{+}$) to a molecule. While it can be a step in a reaction mechanism, it is not a method of converting monomers into polymers on its own.

Therefore, the only correct method listed for converting monomers into a polymer is a condensation reaction.