Kid Zone Polymer Basics

1. Plastics are ‘polymers’, which is something made of many ‘units’ similar to a chain. Each link in the chain is the “mer” or basic unit usually made out of ‘links, or mers hooked, or polymerized, together.’

2. Many common classes of polymers are composed of ‘hydrocarbons’, which contain the elements carbon and hydrogen. List seven elements that are also found in polymers: ‘oxygen’, ‘chlorine’, ‘phosphorous’, ‘sulfur’, ‘fluorine’, ‘nitrogen’, and ‘silicon’.

3. What is one of the most famous silicon-based polymers? ‘Silly Putty’

4.  What are the general attributes (properties) of polymers?
A. Polymers can be very resistant to ‘chemicals’.
B. Polymers can be both ‘themal’ and ‘electrical’ insulators.
C. Polymers are very light in ‘mass’ with varying degrees of ‘strength’.
D. Polymers can be ‘processed’ in various ways to produce thin fibers or very intricate parts.

5. What percentage of our trash are plastics? ‘9.9’%

6. What does WTE mean? ‘waste-to-energy’ What are two benefits of WTE?
1 – We can use plastics that cannot be ‘recycled’.
2 – Incineration of polymers produces ‘heat energy’.   


Site #2: History of Plastics
Read the information on this page to help you complete this section. Fill in the blanks with the year it was first produced and the last name(s) of the person credited with the discovery/development. Use the information to list the substances with dates from the oldest to the most recent in the box.
Rayon – Developed in 1891 by Bernigaut
Silly Putty - Developed in 1949 by Wright
Cellophane - Discovered in 1900 by Brandenberger
Parkesine - Discovered in 1862 by Parker
Nylon - Developed in 1939 by Carothers
Bakelite - Developed in 1907 by Baekeland
Velcro - Developed in 1957 by Maestral
Saran - Discovered in 1933 by Wiley
PVC (Vinyl) – Developed by Simon
Polyethylene – Developed in 1936 by Fawcett & Gibson
Teflon – Discovered in 1938 by Plunkett
Celluoid - Developed in 1869 by Hyatt

Plastics Timeline
1 Parkesine
2 Celluloid
3 Rayon
4 Cellophane
5 Bakelite
6 Saran
7 Polyethylene
8 Teflon
9 Nylon
10 Silly Putty
11 Velcro


Plastics have changed the world: Where did the word plastic come from? The word plasticos means ‘to mold‘__It is called this, because plastics are soft and moldable during production.

What are plastics? Define the following words after reading the section titled “What are plastics”

• monomer: monomer is a molecule that contains carbon and other substances. Monomers normally come from oil/petroleum or natural gas. A monomer is a single molecule that is capable of joining with many others, to create a chain of monomers, called a polymer.

• polymer: A polymer is multiple monomers. It’s like a chain of paper clips, the single paper clips are monomers, and when they create a chain they form a polymer.

• organic material: Organic material are things like wood fibers, corn or banana peels.

Polymerization: Polymerization is the chemical process where monomers combined to make polymers.


The steps listed below explain how plastic is made. Fill in the missing blanks.

1. Crude oil, the unprocessed oil that comes out of the ground, contains hundreds of different hydrocarbons, as well as small amounts of other materials. The job of an oil refinery is to separate these materials and also to break down (or "crack) large hydrocarbons into smaller ones.

2. A petrochemical plant receives refined oil containing the small monomers they need and creates polymers through chemical reactions.

3. A plastics factory buys the end products of a petrochemical plant - polymers in the form of resings - introduces additives to modify or obtain desirable properties, then molds or otherwise forms the final plastic products

Polymers are Everywhere: Read the paragraph titled “Polymers are Everywhere”, then answer true or false to the following questions.

• True Plastics are polymers, but polymers don't have to be plastics.

• False- they are examples of polymers.  Cellulose, the basic component of plant cell wall, and DNA, the long molecule in the nuclei of your cells that carries all the genetic information about you, are both examples of plastics.

• True Natural polymers include silk, wool, cotton, wood, and leather.

Thermoplastics & Thermosets: Plastics are classified into two categories according to what happens to them when they're heated to high temperatures. Complete the table below.

	Thermoplastics	Thermosets
can it be reshaped?	yes	no
analogy	like ice, when it is heated, it will melt, then you can form it into a new shape.	its like a raw egg, it can be a fried egg, you can hard boil it, or scramble it. But once you fry your egg, it can never go back to a raw egg.
strong or weak bonds	weak	strong
uses	plastic rap, food containers, lighting panels, garden hoses, and plastic bags	spatulas, other kitchen tools, glues, varnishes, and circuit boards.
recycling easy or hard?	easy!	hard

1. Click the link to make a virtual polymer and choose polyethylene.
A. What type of monomer is used to make this polymer? ‘Ethylene monomers’
B. What elements and how many of each is in one of these monomers?
 C = ‘Carbon’  # - ‘2’  H = ‘Hydrogen’ # -‘4’
C. What starts the process? ‘iniatiator’

2. Click the link to try the matching games.  Record your times or scores in the blanks below.
A. Breakfast Game– 1st Try = ‘9413’   2nd Try = ‘9096’  3rd Try = ‘9399’
B. Polymer Game - – 1st Try = ‘9330’   2nd Try = ‘9313’  3rd Try = ‘9186’

Chem Think; Chemical Reactions

Chemical reactions

1. Reactants
2. Products
3. Chemical change has taken place
4. There is rearrangement of the bonds
5. Breaking or forming
6. Same atoms
7. Missing atoms or new atoms
8. Rearrange the bonds
9. 2 2 1 1
10. 2 H(2) and 1O(2)--> 1H2O

# of atoms in reactants	element	#of atoms in products
4	H	2
2	O	1

11. Law of Conservation of Mass
12. Cu atoms and Oxygen atoms
13. 2 Cu+0(2)--> 2CuO
14.

reactants	products
Cu atoms= 1	Cu atoms= 2
O atoms= 2	O atoms= 2

15. 1 Cu atoms,
16. O, Cu, Cu
17. 2 Cu+ 2O---> 2CuO

reactants	products
Cu atoms= 2	Cu atoms= 2
O atoms= 2	O atoms= 2

18. 1CH(4) + 2O(2)--> 2H(2)O+1CO(2)

atoms in reactants	element	atoms in products
1	C	1
4	H	2
2	O	3

19. 1 N(2) + 3H(2)--> 2NH(3)
20. 2 KCIO(3) ---> 2 KCI + 3 O(2)
21. 4 Al + 3 O(2)---> 2 Al(2)O(3)

Summary:

1. Chemical reactions always involve breaking bonds, making bonds, or both.
2. The same atoms must be present before and after the reaction.
3. You change the coefficients in front of each substance until there are the same number of each type of atom in both reactants and products.  

Chemical Reactions Combustion Demonstration

This afternoon we witnessed three demonstrations regarding combustion. To begin, we saw how heat reacted with ethanol. What our teacher, Miss Leland, did was to put roughly 20ml of ethanol into a two liter soda bottle, and mixed it around so the ethanol coated the bottle, and the rest of the ethanol became a gas. After a while, she opened the lid and poured out the excess ethanol, and set the cup back down on a table. She proceeded to light a flame over the lip of the bottle. Suddenly, a flame lept about the inside of the bottle, consuming the ethanol instantly. After the combustion, several tablespoons of water were left over. This was a prime example of an exothermic reaction, which is when heat is generated off of the bottle. This reaction was one that separated the water, from the carbon dioxide.

She also conducted a test containing baking soda and vinegar. When placed together in a flask, they immediately start to foam. The top was quickly covered, as to contain the gas inside the flask. After removing the cover, she put the mouth of the flask towards two lit candles, and they blew out immediately. This was due to the carbon monoxide that was created had stifled the oxygen around the flame, and a flame needs oxygen to survive.

The last test was using pool acid. When pool acid and since were added to a beaker, and a flame was placed near it, the mixture would combust, and stay alive for roughly ten seconds, before our instructor added even more zinc, which caused the flame to leap up again for a short while. This experiment lasted the longest of all of our tests, and in my opinion, was the most amusing. Something about the zinc and pool acid caused a flame to be sustained for a short while. This shows how certain chemicals react with heat in different ways.

Chemistry Reactions and Heat Lab

Questions:
How does heat create chemical reactions?

Hypothesis:
Heat will accelerate chemical reactions due to the energy transferred, making the atoms more excited.

Results:
Cody and I took an alka-seltzer tablet and put it into water of three temperaters. First, our hot water test. When we placed the tablet into hot water, the fizz that it was created was instant, and fast. The temperature was 50 degrees Celcious, and the time it took to dissolve was roughly 25.19 seconds.

The room temperature lab was slightly different.  This time, when the tablet was inserted, it took a little bit longer to disolve, clocking in at 33.67 seconds. This could be because the water was not as warm, therefore not transferring the energy that makes the molecules more excited. The reaction happened slower, and longer.

The final test we conducted was the cold water test, which involved placing a tablet into a cup of water with ice. The temperature was about .5 degrees celcious. When the tablet fell in, my lab partner and I knew it would be quite different from the tests before. This test lasted a whole 2.33.53 minutes. We predict this was becuase when hot water sped up the resuts, the cold water slowed them down.

In conclusion, my hypothesis was correct. In hot water, the reaction was faster. In cold water, the reaction was slower.

This is an average graph, showing how the higher the temperature, the shorter the time it took for the tablet to disslve. The colder the temperature, the longer it took for the tablet to dissolve.

Freezing and Melting Water

Freezing and Melting of Water

Hypothesis:  If the probe is put into the ice water and then warm water, we will obtain a freezing and melting point, the melting point being higher than the freezing point. The freezing point should be roughly 0 degrees Celsius, and the melting point should be roughly 5 degrees Celsius.

To start, my partner and I had started with a 600 mL  beaker, filled roughly one third of the way with ice. We also added roughly five tablespoons of salt. We added a temperature probe, and added it to the ice water. We calculated the mean, median, and minimum and maximum temperatures. After recording the freezing point of water, we let the thermometer thaw out a little, then we calculated the melting point of water. It would be seen that the freezing point of water was about .5 degrees Celsius.

This is an image of our freezing water data after fifteen minutes. At first, we added the probe o the water. The stats read as follows : Mean- .5645. Median- .5895. Minimum temp- .3113. Maximum temp- .6426. Those are the results for the freezing test. All of our data, for both the cold and warm water test, is recorded here.

The above is an image including the freezing point and melting point. One of our mistakes, however, was that my group mis-labeled our points, so please disregard that information. What is labeled as the freezing point it actually the melting point, and vice versa. Our melting point turned out to be roughly 4.7 degrees Celsius.

In conclusion, my hypothesis was correct. The freezing point was just above 0 degrees Celsius, and the melting point was just below 5 degrees Celsius. If I was to change the experiment in any way, I would spend a little more time with more advanced settings of Logger Pro, so  I could be more exact on my scientific results.