Experiment #1: Slime to make some polymers!

Introduction

Polymers are extremely important compounds and are used in a wide variety of

applications around the world. Although the polymers themselves have interesting properties,

they can be made to behave differently by cross-linking the polymer chains. For instance, if

polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) is cross linked with sodium tetraborate, the resulting “slime” has several

non-newtonian properties. One kind of “slime” can be synthesized by cross-linking the polymer

(PVA) with boron linkages by adding sodium tetraborate.

Procedure

to .1 No changes to procedure were made.As in the Chemistry 101 Lab Manual, pages

Data

Table 1: reagents used.

Compound Name MW Amount used mmol used Relevant properties and hazards

Discussion

For the synthesis, a mL beaker was chosen because the total volume of the

combined solutions should be less than mL. A beaker larger than mL would make

it difficult to handle such a small quantity. The balance was chosen to weigh

the material, as it was not important to know the accurate concentration of the solutions.

The product slime was synthesized by combining the clear portion of

the sodium tetraborate solution and the polyvinyl alcohol solution. It appears that not all the

sodium tetraborate was required to synthesize the slime, but perhaps if slightly more water

had been used to make the sodium tetraborate solution, the slime may have been of higher

, and flow like a liquid. When pressure quality. The slime was , was applied, it behave more like a solid. This suggests that the slimenewtonian fluid, as it also

self-siphoning effect when poured from one beaker to another. The ink

1) Reimer, M., Yunker, L.P.E., Brant, M., McIndoe, S., Briggs, S., CHEM 101 Lab Manual, Fall 2015, p - .(University of Victoria: Victoria, BC).

Slime

1

B

References

by the slime on the watch glass.

a non-elastic recoil when cut, and a small