Plastics |
From your early years in education, Plastics have always been described as solid insulators of heat and electricity. In fact this well known property is why it's used to cover wires and insulate circuits to prevent electrocution. |
As you progress through secondary school you learn that there are different types of plastics which are different because of the different monomers that make them up.
A level studies identify polymers and their uses and describes how their properties are produced by the chemical structure of their monomers. For instance Kevlar is a close packing polymer which is very strong because of the large intermolecular forces between the regular, crystalline structure of chains. Another example of a polymer is Low Density Poly(ethene) which can be stretched as the amorphous (randomly aligned) polymer chains which are held together by weak intermolecular forces are pulled into line.
The unexpected properties of polymers are also introduced. For instance, when a polymer is cooled down to a specific temperature, there is no longer enough energy in the surroundings to allow the polymer chains to slide over each other in the polymer's malleable state and so the polymer becomes brittle and glass like. Another unexpected property is that of conducting electricity.
| HOME | How to make a polymer | The discovery of conducting polymers | What is conduction? |
| What is conjugation? | How to make a polymer conduct | What can conducting polymers be used for? | References |
| Laura White: 24/05/04 |