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polyacrylonitrile

polyacrylonitrile

1 9.9
A man-made material used to make strong fibers and plastics
  • noun
  • /ˌpɒliˌækrɪloʊˈnaɪtraɪl/
  • Specialized
: poliacrilonitrilo
  • Polyacrylonitrile is commonly used to create strong fibers for making durable clothing.

Examples

  • Carr and his colleagues made a starch-polyacrylonitrile graft copolymer, a precursor of Super Slurper, in about 6 minutes.

    Academic text (1994)
  • In the Li-Poly, a solid polymer composite, such as polyacrylonitrile, is used.

    Academic text (2007)
  • The manufacturing process involves using polyacrylonitrile as a key ingredient in carbon fiber production.

  • For the construction of lightweight materials, polyacrylonitrile serves as an essential synthetic polymer.

Surface Forms

Morphology

polyacrylonitrile = acrylonitrile (opaque) = poly + acrylonitrile

The polymer relation is technically regular, but the base term 'acrylonitrile' is highly specialized and not meaningfully recoverable for an average B1 learner.

Etymology

The word polyacrylonitrile breaks into poly- 'many' and acrylonitrile, which joins acrylic, a familiar material, and nitrile 'related to nitrogen'. So polyacrylonitrile literally means 'many acrylic parts with nitrogen', which helps explain why it is a long man-made material used to make strong fibers and plastics.