All Polymers articles – Page 5
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NewsBPA substitute from paper by-product
Plant-derived plastic shows benefits of BPA without the toxicity
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Resource
Polymers
Understanding the formation and properties of polymers gives an insight into how they are used in everyday life. The chemistry involved is varied and links together many aspects of the subject including an introduction to organic chemistry, ions, structure and bonding. The activities that include both practicals and questions help ...
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Feature
Terpenes: not just for Christmas
The chemicals that give Christmas trees their pine fresh smell could be at the centre of a chemical revolution, as Josh Howgego explains
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Feature
The science of sorting
Many of the UK's local authorities collect recyclable waste mixed together in the same bin. Mike Tingle discovers how differences in chemical and physical properties are used to separate a wide variety of materials
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Resource
Chemistry in your Bathroom resource
Discover how Croda products transform your bathroom from disarray to a fully functionable and clean bathroom with this resource explaining the chemistry behind these products. Please note that some aspects of the resource are no longer interactive/functional.
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Resource
Green plastics
Introducing students to the role of chemistry in creating a more sustainable society.
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Resource
Year 9 chemistry day
Introducing the fun aspects polymers with plastic milk and bouncing custard.
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Resource
Snap, crackle and snot
Investigate some of the weird and wonderful properties of solids, liquids and gases.
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The Mole
Trade secrets... Skateboarding
Secrets of the trade: Jonathan Hare investigates how chemistry revolutionised the sport
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Resource
On This Day – Jul 28 : Earl Tupper was born
While working at the DuPont chemical company he began to scrounge waste polythene, and then purified and moulded it into cups, bowls and plates. Tupper later founded the Tupperware Plastics Company, and sold it 20 years later for $16 million USD.
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Resource
On This Day - Feb 24 : Nylon commercially produced
Nylon was first used in toothbrush bristles for the Miracle Tuft Toothbrush. Before this, the world relied on toothbrush bristles made from the neck hairs of wild pigs from Siberia, Poland and China.
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Resource
On This Day - Jun 21 : Boron was isolated
The French pair beat the English chemist Humphrey Davy to it by just nine days. Boron (B) is named after one of its compounds, borax, which had been used as a glazing agent for hundreds of years.
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Resource
On This Day - Apr 06 : Teflon invented
Teflon, which is the trade name for polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), was first made by American chemist Roy Plunkett by accident whilst working for DuPont. Teflon’s inert nature and extreme slipperiness has led to it being used in many applications, including non-stick saucepans.
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Resource
On This Day - Jan 22 : Alan J Heeger was born
He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2000 along with Alan MacDiarmid and Hideki Shirakawa for “their discovery and development of conductive polymers”. They found that modified plastics could conduct electricity, which has many commercial uses such as LEDs and mobile telephone display screens.
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Resource
On This Day - Feb 04 : Plunkett patented Teflon
Teflon is the brand name for polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), a fluorinated plastic. It is used as a non-stick coating for pans because of its inertness and extreme slipperiness. It is the only known material to which gecko’s feet cannot stick!
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Feature
Teaching chemistry in 3D using crystal structure data
Fundamental topics such as stereochemistry are taught in 2 or 2.5D - the Cambridge Structural Database provides an interactive 3D solution
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The Mole
Hang time: could you use a hose pipe to break a fall of 10 metres?
On screen chemistry with Jonathan Hare
