Polymer Production

[Ferdinand]

Hello..thank you to all for your contributions. I enjoy reading them.

I have on regular occasions had reason to produce nylon, casein plastic(though formalin is now banned)and slime goo - using guar gum and borax. I would be very eager to find a process (procedure)which could be used to make the sticky rubber that's found on novelty toy insects or on the rolling lint remover, or even the rubber stuff that's used to stick your ATM or credit card on the letter that you are posted with it. In addition, does anyone else have any other polymer making recipes?

[RyanJ]

In addition, does anyone else have any other polymer making recipes?

 

Most process that make plymerisation need to be done in a clean environment to prevent comtamination. Also, most of these processes are quite complex and use special equitment

 

Cheers,

 

Ryan Jones

[Ferdinand]

Ryan, thank you for your advice. As I've said, I have made nylon, slime and casein plastic successfully in the past...with high school procedural chemistry. The cleanliness and contamination is not an issue. My interest in increasing my repetoire for my students is. Does anyone know of the "sticky rubber" recipe, or other polymermaking procedures?

[RyanJ]

Ryan, thank you for your advice. As I've said, I have made nylon, slime and casein plastic successfully in the past...with high school procedural chemistry. The cleanliness and contamination is not an issue. My interest in increasing my repetoire for my students is. Does anyone know of the "sticky rubber" recipe, or other polymermaking procedures?

 

In that case, make Google your best friend. I did a simple search and it turned up some promising results though I did not have time to read them, if you know what your looking for you should find better ones

 

Cheers,

 

Ryan Jones

[akcapr]

to make the goo stuff in toys you take polyvinyl alcohol, and sodium tetraborate and mix them. i dont rember the exact proportions but when hey are mixed they form stickly slime. adding morepolyvinylOH will make it more stick.

[Pleiades]

Silly Putty!

 

From Wikipedia:

An undergraduate chemistry experiment is the production of silly putty, this is done by treating a solution of dimethyldichlorosilane in diethyl ether with water (Warning the reaction of dimethyldichlorosilane with water is violent and generates HCl). After washing the ether solution of the silicone oil with aqeuous sodium bicarbonate, the solution is dried before the ether is evapourated off. Powdered boric oxide is added to the oil before it is heated to form the silly putty. The silly putty has boron based crosslinks between the polymer chains. These boron crosslinks only can break and be formed slowly, hence when the silly putty is hit with a hammer or thrown at the floor it shatters or bounces but when the solid is left for a time in a tray it slowly flows. Silly putty is an example of an inorganic polymer