Monomer

A monomer is a single atom or molecule which is able to join with other monomers to make new substances called polymers.^[1] The words come from the Greek language where mono means "one", poly means "many", and meros means "a part". A feature of monomers is that they have two carbon atoms which are joined, called a carbon double bond.^[1] The double bond allows the monomer to make the long chains of polymers.^[1] There are thousands of different monomers. Examples of monomers include monosaccharide which is simple sugar, glycerol, amino acid and nucleotide.^[2] The most made monomer is ethylene.