Pvac As Base Tumors In The Production Of A Polymer Ball

Investigating the effectivness of PVA and PVAc as base polymers In the production of a polymer ball.

Introduction

A monomer refers to a specific group of atoms that from a molecular unit. When monomers are strung together like a long chain they form polymers. A good analogy of polymers, would be long connections of chains which become tangled like a bunch of spaghetti in a pot. The reason for experimenting with, and understanding polymers is because they play such a major roll and are found in many other molecules that make up life. Important facts about polymers are they have the highest molecular weight amongst molecules, and may consist of millions of atoms. Human DNA is a polymer consisting of over 20 billion component atoms,
So we conducted multiple experiments with multiple combinations with varying results. With most of the combinations we were able to achieve some form of a polymer ball, with the reactions ranging from one extreme to the other. Some combinations were either to goopy or so firm that in either case the ability to hold shape and bounce was void. Eight test were conducted using our final sample which was the mixture of 10ml of PVA and 10ml of Borax as the best sample. We ran two tests each at Room temperature, two test 0° C, two tests at 50° C, and two tests at 100° C. The two tests we ran at each temperature were how high the ball bounced starting at 100 cm, and how many times the ball bounced above 10 cm starting at a height of 100 cm. For the room temperature ball we concluded that its peak height was 42 cm after dropping it from 100 cm and it bounced a total of 3 times above 10 cm. For the ball at 0* C the same results were found. When we measured the ball at 50° C the ball bounced at a peak height of 22 cm and only bounced one time over 10 cm. When we measured the ball at 100 ° C the conclusions deviated from the first two temperatures. The ball at 100° C bounced to a peak height of 15 cm and only bounced one time above 10
Obviously there are combinations where the result were not stellar. We as a group analyzed the data and realized that we needed to omit cornstarch as it was absorbing the moisture out of the ball even with smaller quantities, rendering it slightly firmer, unable to bounce, and quick to become hard to the point of crumbling. One result produced no reaction, as we combined PVA and PVAc and omitted the Borax which made us realize that Borax was the solution which contained cross- linking ions which would allow the polymers in the PVA or PVAc to react. By looking at 9th and tenth trails, you can see that both produced very good samples as the ratios stayed the same at 1:1 the increase in the amount of chemical used only made the size of the ball bigger but the chemical compound remained the same. With the exception of the .63 grams of cornstarch which inhibited the number nine sample to not perform as well as sample 10. Future improvements can be made, by having more precise measuring instruments, as we assume that our measurements are approximations as we could not account for the loss of some of the solution to the sides of the graduated cylinders, and beakers. Other improvements can be made by substituting the PVA and Borax, with sodium silicate and ethanol, which would produce a polymer ball that would bounce