Polymers/plastics Flashcards
What are plastics?
- Are carbon-based
- Range of organic materials
What are plastics building blocks?
Monomers
What turns monomers into polymers?
Polymerization
How are plastics manufactured?
From crude oil
Whats the first synthetic material made?
Bakelite
What bakelite and example of?
Thermosetting plastic
What is electro-negativity?
The electron attracting potential of an element
What are the elements in organic polymers?
C, H, N, O, P and S
What does difference in electro-negativity determine?
Bond type
What does a big difference in electro-negativity show?
It is an ionic bond
What does a small difference in electro-negativity show?
It is a covalent bond
How is ethane denoted?
C_2H_6
What organic molecule is the start of a homologous series?
CH_4
Whats the source of all plastics?
- Crude oil
What does crude oil consist of?
- Consists predominantly of hydrocarbons
What percentage of the hydrocarbons in crude oil are aliphatic?
25%
What percentage of hydrocarbons in crude oil are aromatic?
17%
What percentage of hydrocarbons in crude oil are naphthenes?
50 %
What does increasing the number of carbons do?
Increases the boiling point in a systematic way
What is the basis of oil refining?
Separating in different fractions
What colour is crude oil?
Viscous, dark colored
What kind of boiling points do small molecules have?
low
What is an example of aromatics?
Benzene
Example of cycloalkanes?
Methyl
Example of Alkynes?
Acetylene
What is the biggest contributor to petrochemical feedstock?
Gasoline
What is petrochemical feedstock?
Petrochemical feedstock is used for manufacturing polymers
accounts for 2.7% of crude oil
What is the polymerisation of ethylene?
Polyethylene
What uses, heat, pressure and catalyst?
Polymerization
What causes the distribution of chain lengths and thus molecular weights?
Formation of macromolecules during polymerization
How is molecular weight determined?
Molecular weight determined by polymerization conditions
What has a lower molecular weight?
The increased amount of polymer
What are the two types polymers?
They can be crystalline or amorphous
What are thermoplastics?
- Become soft and melt when heated and can be moulded into a new shape that is retained on cooling
- Thermo-plastics can be reheated and remoulded many times
What are the thermosetting plastics?
- Thermosetting plastics cannot be remolded
- If reheated it will not soften