Polymer Chemistry
In the context of polymers, "dimer" also refers to the degree of polymerization 2, regardless of the stoichiometry or condensation reactions. This is particularly applicable to disaccharides. For example, cellobiose is a dimer of glucose, even though the formation reaction produces water:
- 2C6H12O6 → C12H22O11 + H2O
Here, the dimer has a stoichiometry different from the pair of monomers.
Read more about this topic: Dimer (chemistry)
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“For me chemistry represented an indefinite cloud of future potentialities which enveloped my life to come in black volutes torn by fiery flashes, like those which had hidden Mount Sinai. Like Moses, from that cloud I expected my law, the principle of order in me, around me, and in the world.... I would watch the buds swell in spring, the mica glint in the granite, my own hands, and I would say to myself: “I will understand this, too, I will understand everything.””
—Primo Levi (1919–1987)