Today we conducted a sodium silicate polymer lab. We were trying to find out how to make a sodium silicate polymer lab. My groups hypothesis: When ethyl alcohol is added to the sodium silicate, it will form a polymer. Happy to say, that is exactly what happened. When the ethyl alcohol was added, at first I thought we weren't seeing that much change, but then we stir it up which must have caused some sort of reaction and it started clumping together. Like the other day, our mixture went from liquid to solid in just a matter of seconds. A challenge came though. Making a sphere out of the sodium silicate polymer. This polymer was crumbier than the glue one and broke easier. However, once it was in its ball, it maintained shape the rest of the time. The picture with the white sphere in the hand, is the ball of the polymer when it was formed. It kind of reminded me of a bouncy ball, whereas the other one reminded me of silly putty. The rebound test was up next and here were our results for non-refrigerated rebound:
Test # Height (Centimeters)
1 13 cm
2 17 cm
3 13 cm
4 15 cm
Average Height: 14.5 centimeters
Obviously, this polymer is way bouncier than glue based one. Now, we refrigerated ours for nearly 10 minutes, but we noticed our ball did not retain a temperature. That's what we thought at first.
Test # Height (Centimeters)
1 16 cm
2 20 cm
3 21 cm
4 15 cm
Average Height: 18 centimeters
Whoa, that refrigeration made a difference. I am just guessing here but maybe while the ball was in the fridge, it got cold enough for the core to almost freeze and hold a shape, making the ball overall, more dense. That means it bounces higher.
Questions:
What characteristics are similar between your two types of polymers you have made? Differences?
Both polymers were bouncy. 2nd polymer was slightly bouncier though. I noticed the 1st polymer was more flexible. The 2nd polymer had a crystal look and was more translucent than number one.
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