Talk:Depolymerization

List of suggestions by David Spector 2 June 2010 (moved from article by Dirac66)
 * Needs proper diambiguation for the British spelling.


 * See also the corresponding stub section in the Polymerization article.

Needs:


 * Explanation of why this occurs.
 * Generation of carcinogenic liquids and gases as a result, including relevance to:


 * the disposal of vinyl siding
 * the health impact of the reuse of plastic bottles by consumers
 * the possible health impact of the interior atmosphere of cars
 * the clouding of windshields of cars. Dirac66 (talk) 02:07, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

Chemistry only?
I'm not sure the current article is even correct to limit this to changes caused by heat, light and time. Depolymerisation is important to the cytoskeleton. Assembly and disassembly of those macromolecules certainly isn't caused by any of the above but by enzymes, which are themselves tightly controlled. Ka Faraq Gatri (talk) 19:37, 25 July 2010 (UTC)

Is definition correct?
The IUPAC Gold Book (here) defines depolymerization as "The process of converting a polymer into a monomer or a mixture of monomers", that is the inverse reaction to polymerization. But this article now includes other degradation products including both shorter polymers and small molecules which are not monomers. Is there a reliable reference which refers to the formation of products other than monomers as "depolymerization"? If not, the article name should be changed, perhaps to "polymer decomposition", or it could be merged with polymer degradation. Dirac66 (talk) 14:16, 2 October 2010 (UTC)

Thanks, you are right. I just transfered almost everything to the article polymer degradation. Michel Awkal (talk) 18:30, 3 October 2010 (UTC)