Bouncy balls are made up of Polymers, which are made up of many small units of monomers, that go through the process of Polymerization to become Polymers. People can see such polymers all around them like rubber, wool, silk etc. Polymers have unique properties that allow chemist’s and scientists to mix different types of polymers with each other to form new ones. In the lab Polyvinyl Acetate (PVAc), Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA), and Sodium Borate were used to make and design the bouncy balls. The borax in this experiment acts as a cross-linking agent that connects the Polyvinyl Acetate (PVAc) molecules. It basically cross-links to itself when it reacts with borax chemically on a macro level. This can be displayed in (Figure 1) where cross-linking
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This can be done through investigating different percentage combinations of the substances used and to run different trials to study whether the bouncy ball can endure different temperatures to still be productive, and stable. Firstly, before any experimentation starts an accurate mole to mole ratio calculation of the constituent substances is needed. This is done by balancing a chemical equation and figuring out how much moles is required for that reaction to stabilize. This allows chemists to choose the best mixture of the ingredients with the best output. Secondly, there was a need to figure out which conditions would the bouncy ball thrive in, and which conditions made it bounce less, and less productive. Thirdly there is a need to assess the robustness of the polymer in those conditions by running the balls through a series of tests, and acquiring the results. This required that we understand the basic concepts of …show more content…
From the initial trials and errors the best molar ratio was chosen to be a 3 to 1 ratio of borax and PVAc respectively. The best molar ratio was then run through a series of environmental tests, however it only passed the cold temperature tests, which proves that the bonding of PvaC and borax is broken when the atoms move close together in hot climates. The balls remained stable but only for a short-term period. After that, the balls began to change shape and become harder from natural causes/conditions. Furthermore, the assessment of the robustness of the polymer came out positive because the ball’s were consistent with what was initially planned. The final result was a ball that had an 11.7cm bounce to it, it was stable in cold temperature’s, but also lasted for a while after being exposed to heat. It was consistent and followed the minimum requirements that was set out in the beginning. With that in mind, the experiment came out to be
This can be done through investigating different percentage combinations of the substances used and to run different trials to study whether the bouncy ball can endure different temperatures to still be productive, and stable. Firstly, before any experimentation starts an accurate mole to mole ratio calculation of the constituent substances is needed. This is done by balancing a chemical equation and figuring out how much moles is required for that reaction to stabilize. This allows chemists to choose the best mixture of the ingredients with the best output. Secondly, there was a need to figure out which conditions would the bouncy ball thrive in, and which conditions made it bounce less, and less productive. Thirdly there is a need to assess the robustness of the polymer in those conditions by running the balls through a series of tests, and acquiring the results. This required that we understand the basic concepts of …show more content…
From the initial trials and errors the best molar ratio was chosen to be a 3 to 1 ratio of borax and PVAc respectively. The best molar ratio was then run through a series of environmental tests, however it only passed the cold temperature tests, which proves that the bonding of PvaC and borax is broken when the atoms move close together in hot climates. The balls remained stable but only for a short-term period. After that, the balls began to change shape and become harder from natural causes/conditions. Furthermore, the assessment of the robustness of the polymer came out positive because the ball’s were consistent with what was initially planned. The final result was a ball that had an 11.7cm bounce to it, it was stable in cold temperature’s, but also lasted for a while after being exposed to heat. It was consistent and followed the minimum requirements that was set out in the beginning. With that in mind, the experiment came out to be