AbstractThe extreme ultraviolet absorption spectra between 1700–3000 A of a series of monomers and polymers show that, in addition to absorption due to the presence of chromophores such as phenyl rings and residual double bonds, other factors such as light scattering, orientation or polarization effects, and interaction, both intermolecular and intramolecular, are important in the observed spectra. In polymers such as polystyrene and polybutadiene, the effect due to scattering becomes appreciable (about 20–30%) at about 1700 A but the other factors do not appear to be important. In proteins, the absorption at short wavelengths is seen to be a function of absorbing chromophores as well as of residual double bond character of the polypeptide chain, of light scattering, and orientation or polarization and intramolecular effects. In other polyelectrolytes, such as polyvinylpyridinium chloride, changes in the 2000 A transition indicate that there is a degree of orientation and/or molecular interaction of the aromatic groups in these polym