Proteins (CIE IGCSE Chemistry)
Revision Note
Proteins
Extended tier only
- Proteins are an example of condensation polymers
- They are formed from amino acid monomers joined together by amide links
- Amino acids are small molecules containing NH2 and COOH functional groups
- Due to containing amide links and being found in biological systems, proteins are known as natural polyamides
- In proteins, the amide links are known as peptide links
- There are twenty common amino acids, each differing by their side chain, represented by R
General structure of an amino acid
- Proteins can contain between 60 and 600 of these amino acids in different orders
- These are the monomers which polymerise to form the protein
The formation of a protein
A protein is produced by a condensation polymerisation reaction
- The structure of proteins can be represented using the following diagram whereby the boxes represent the carbon chains
Diagram showing a section of protein
Exam Tip
For your exam, you are only required to draw proteins using the boxes representing the carbon chains.
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