Wednesday 9 March 2011

Polymer lab group investigation

Our original hypothesis was "If we use a stronger type of glue, and more borax, then the solution that we create will be stronger and it will have a higher rebound factor." The problem we were trying to solve was "how can we make a sturdier polymer using materials similar to the ones used in Tuesday’s lab? (Glue and two teaspoons of borax.)" The materials that we used in this lab were only slightly different from the first polymer we did. We used Tilebond Wood Glue™, water, a stirring rod, one 500 mL beaker, a 250 mL beaker, a graduated cylinder, and borax. The results were mixed. The polymer we made without extra borax was much stretchier, and less stickier. At one point we were able to stretch the solution to be 15 feet long! The first polymer snapped at one foot. One other difference between the two polymer is that the first polymer had a much higher rebound (14cm) then the wood glue polymer (6cm). When we froze the wood glue polymer it had a slightly higher rebound (9cm) but the increase was very small. After we were done testing that polymer we created a new one. For this one we use wood glue again but doubled the amount of borax in the solution. The results were catastrophic.





Our second solution of the day-










The result of adding more borax was a wet slimy, sticky substance that uzzed unbonded glue. It was pretty disgusting and we were unable to test it for anything, so we just through it away. Aside from that I think that we had a very productive lab, and I learned a lot.

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