Degree of polymerisation

In polymer chemistry, the degree of polymerisation is a measure of how big the molecules in a sample of a polymer are. For a single molecule, the degree of polymerisation is defined as the number of monomers used to make it. This definition is more common with small oligomers. In practice polymerisation ends with big differences between the largest and smallest polymer molecules, so an average degree of polymerisation is used for large polymer samples.

References

  1. ↑ IUPAC, Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. (the "Gold Book") (2025). Online version: (2006–) "Degree of polymerization". doi:10.1351/goldbook.D01569
  2. ↑ IUPAC, Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. (the "Gold Book") (2025). Online version: (2006–) "Average degree of polymerization". doi:10.1351/goldbook.A00540