RET 2008 – Week 2

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Making Slime

Making Nylon

TGA

Thermogravimeteric Analyzer

• Measures weight loss upon heating, cooling, or when held at a constant temperature.

• The machine is basically a furnace with a microbalancer that is used to characterize materials with regard to their composition.

Procedure1. Cut out piece of

polymer with hole punch and put in aluminum crucible.

2. Place in platinum microbalancer.

Procedure (Continued)3. Set the computer for rate of heating (10⁰/min).4. Set computer for type of gas (air for nylon 6,6 and nitrogen for PETE and PP)

Thermal events and processes that can be determined by TGA

• Absorption/desorption of gases/moisture.

• Thermal stability.• Identification of

decomposition products, solvents, solvates.

• Pseudopolymorphism.

• VOCABULARY• Solvate- an aggregate

that consists of a solute ion or molecule with one or more solvent molecules.

• Pseudopolymorphism-different crystal types are the result of hydration or solvation.

TGA degradation for two differentHDPE bottles due to filler material.

Decomposition kinetics- changes in maximum temperature of decomposition due to changes in heating rate.

DSC

DSC - Differential Scanning Calorimeter

measures temperatures and heat flows associated with thermal transitions in a material

Glass Transition Temperature - Tg

the temperature at which a solid, such as glass or a polymer,becomes brittle (crystalline) on cooling, or soft (amorphous) on heating

Punching

Filling Pan

Crimping

Cooling

Heating

Cooling

Heating

NMR

Demo with Tony

Glass Blowing with Ron Kemp

AcknowledgmentsAnthony CondoIvan Keresztes

Ron KempNevjinder Singhota

Kevin DilleyJane Earle

Cornell Center for Materials ResearchNational Science Foundation