Between 1984 and 2012 IUPAC published several documents containing recommendations for the nomenclature of a wide variety of polymer types such as regular linear single-strand, irregular single-strand, organic regular double-strand, cyclic organic macromolecules, non-linear macromolecules and macromolecular assemblies, and quasi-single-strand inorganic and coordination polymers. More recently a document on source-based nomenclature for single-strand homopolymers and copolymers was published in 2016, and a document on nomenclature for dendrimers and hyperbranched polymers was published in early 2019. However, structure-based nomenclature for certain types of branched polymers with three or more blocks of identical constitutional repeating units (CRU) (three-arm star, four-arm star or brush, etc.) has not yet been fully addressed by IUPAC.
In this document, the existing recommendations for the structure-based nomenclature of regular single-strand organic polymers are extrapolated to complex polymers. The key proposal is that polymeric moieties may be named as substituents. Types of polymers covered include linear and branched polymers containing more than one block of a single type of constitutional repeating unit (CRU), and branched polymers containing a main chain from which one or more polymeric side-chains emanate. This document also revises some of the rules given in the regular linear single-strand document, in particular rule 22 on polymer chains as substituents.
Keywords: nomenclature, irregular polymer, constitutional repeating unit
Public review ended 31 Dec 2020
IUPAC Recommendations published in PAC vol. 93, no. 9, 2021, pp. 963-995