The bulk of the first part of this answer comes from the Polymer basics section : starting with an appropriate monomer or mix of monomers, the first stage of polymerisation is the formation of long chain molecules containing many thousands of monomer elements. A diagram similar to the bottom section of Figure 1 would be appropriate.
The next stage is bonding between neighbouring chains, in a similar way to that shown for polyethylene in Figure 5. These cross-linked networks are usually produced by chemical reactions triggered by heating in the presence of a catalyst.
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