What is "trimer"

oligomer \o*lig"o*mer\, n. (Chem.) A molecule composed of a small number of linked monomer units; a short polymer; -- compounds called oligomers have less than one hundred monomer units and usually less than thirty. Oligomers of increasing length are called dimer, trimer, tetramer, pentamer, hexamer, heptamer, octamer, nonamer, decamer, etc. In colloquial laboratory jargon, they may also be referred to as nine-mer, ten-mer, eleven-mer, twelve-mer, etc., especially for oligomers of greater than eight units.

n. (context chemistry English) A molecule consisting of a chain of three parts, so called monomers. A trimer is formed by joining three identical molecules.

n. a polymer (or a molecule of a polymer) consisting of three identical monomers

In chemistry, a trimer (tri-, "three" + -mer, "parts") is an oligomer derived from three identical precursors. An example is the procedure of production of polymers. At first, a monomer is made. By combining two monomers, a dimer is produced. With further additions, a trimer and eventually a polymer is made. Often, trimerization competes with polymerization; for example, dimethylsilanediol polymerizes to polydimethylsiloxane, even though a trimer is made:

MeSi(OH) + (HO)SiMe → Me(OH)Si-O-Si(OH)Me – dimer Me(OH)Si-O-Si(OH)Me + (HO)SiMe → Me(OH)Si-O-SiMe-O-Si(OH)Me – trimer Me(OH)Si-O-SiMe-O-Si(OH)Me + (HO)SiMe → Me(OH)Si-O-SiMe-O-SiMe-O-Si(OH)Me – tetramer et cetera, until Me(OH)Si-O-[SiMe-O-]Si(OH)Me (n>100) – polymer

Trimers are typically cyclic. Chemical compounds that often trimerise are aliphatic isocyanates and cyanic acids.

Trimer might refer to: