depolymerize

American  

[dee-puh-lim-uh-rahyz, dee-pol-uh-muh-] / ˌdi pəˈlɪm əˌraɪz, diˈpɒl ə mə- /

especially British, depolymerise

verb (used with object)

Chemistry.

depolymerized, depolymerizing

1. to break down (apolymer ) into monomers.

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depolymerize British  

/ diːˈpɒlɪməˌraɪz /

verb

1. to break (a polymer) into constituent monomers or (of a polymer) to decompose in this way

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Other Word Forms

• depolymerization noun

Etymology

Origin of depolymerize

First recorded in 1890–95; de- + polymerize

Example Sentences

Some thermosets7 have been designed to depolymerize at low temperatures under acid conditions.

From Nature

"We add wood to a reactor and then we also need a catalyst, which is a specific material that will do the chemical reactions in the wood so it will selectively depolymerize our lignin material into chemicals; and then last but not least we also need solvent to extract the lignin out of the solid material and there we can use water for or also various kinds of bio-derived alcohols," Van Den Bosch said.

From Reuters