All Polymers articles – Page 7
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ExperimentSnap, crackle and snot
Investigate some of the weird and wonderful properties of solids, liquids and gases, in this range of experiments
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The MoleTrade secrets... Skateboarding
Secrets of the trade: Jonathan Hare investigates how chemistry revolutionised the sport
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ResourceOn 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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ResourceOn 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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ResourceOn 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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ResourceOn 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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ResourceOn 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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ResourceOn 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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FeatureTeaching 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 MoleHang time: could you use a hose pipe to break a fall of 10 metres?
On screen chemistry with Jonathan Hare
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FeaturePrinting on plastic
The dye diffusion thermal transfer method is used for printing digital photos on plastics, and for direct printing on PVC cards
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Lesson planPlastics and polymers: their structure and properties | 16-18 years
Explore how the properties of polymers depend on their structure and different types of intermolecular bonds using this lesson plan for 16–18 year olds.