Investigating the Reactions Between Polyvinyl Alcohol and Borax in Making a Rubber Ball
Investigating the Reactions between Polyvinyl Alcohol and Borax in Making a Rubber Ball
Introduction
Chemistry, while usually thought of as being practiced mostly in labs, actually affects everyone, everywhere. Chemistry and chemical processes are constantly occurring. We are dependent on them. The air that we breathe, the food that we eat, and thousands of other simple and confusing things depend on chemistry. In this particular case, the relationship between Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA) and Sodium Borate (Borax) is being investigated. PVA is a water soluble synthetic polymer (Maciborski, and Salamone), while Borax is a natural mineral with many household uses. It can be used as herbicide, to bleach teeth, as a household cleaner, and a laundry booster, to name a few (Helmenstine). Figure 1: chemical diagrams of PVA(Adkins) and Borax (Lee), respectively
The two combine to form a slimy eco-friendly substance due to the crosslinking between polymer chains (“Nuffield Foundation”) Polymers are composed of many simple molecules (called monomers) and held together by covalent bonds. As polymers are organic substances, their backbones are composed of carbon atoms bonding to other atoms, allowing the chain to continue growing and linking more atoms together, resulting in up to millions of repeated linked units ("NDT Resource Center").
Structurally, “The borate ion in solution serves as a cross linking agent for PVA generating a new polymeric structure. Na2B4O7 hydrolyzes in solution to generate B(OH)4-. This reacts with the –OH groups on PVA to generate a structure” ("Slime – Polyvinyl Alcohol with Borax").
Figure 2: PVA and Borax reacting together ("Slime – Polyvinyl Alcohol with Borax")
Since many natural resources are becoming scarce and the earth is continuously getting polluted with non-biodegradable substances, it is important to create safe alternatives. In this experiment, the problem of making something useful, such as
Introduction
Chemistry, while usually thought of as being practiced mostly in labs, actually affects everyone, everywhere. Chemistry and chemical processes are constantly occurring. We are dependent on them. The air that we breathe, the food that we eat, and thousands of other simple and confusing things depend on chemistry. In this particular case, the relationship between Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA) and Sodium Borate (Borax) is being investigated. PVA is a water soluble synthetic polymer (Maciborski, and Salamone), while Borax is a natural mineral with many household uses. It can be used as herbicide, to bleach teeth, as a household cleaner, and a laundry booster, to name a few (Helmenstine). Figure 1: chemical diagrams of PVA(Adkins) and Borax (Lee), respectively
The two combine to form a slimy eco-friendly substance due to the crosslinking between polymer chains (“Nuffield Foundation”) Polymers are composed of many simple molecules (called monomers) and held together by covalent bonds. As polymers are organic substances, their backbones are composed of carbon atoms bonding to other atoms, allowing the chain to continue growing and linking more atoms together, resulting in up to millions of repeated linked units ("NDT Resource Center").
Structurally, “The borate ion in solution serves as a cross linking agent for PVA generating a new polymeric structure. Na2B4O7 hydrolyzes in solution to generate B(OH)4-. This reacts with the –OH groups on PVA to generate a structure” ("Slime – Polyvinyl Alcohol with Borax").
Figure 2: PVA and Borax reacting together ("Slime – Polyvinyl Alcohol with Borax")
Since many natural resources are becoming scarce and the earth is continuously getting polluted with non-biodegradable substances, it is important to create safe alternatives. In this experiment, the problem of making something useful, such as
Bibliography: Adkins, Jesse. Chemical Structure of Polyvinyl Alcohol. 2006. Photograph. WikipediaWeb. 07Oct 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pva.png>.