Polymer Lab Group Investigation

My lab group:
Amber
Katie
Me (Dean)

My group conducted two experiments. We tasked ourselves with making a plastic, and making a polymer bouncy ball. The results for making a plastic are pending (Diagrams are in this experiment), because we are letting the beaker with the solution sit overnight. However, the results for the bouncy ball experiment our ready.

Materials:
-Water
-Stirring Rod
-Corn Starch
-Borax (sodium borate)
-White Elmer's Glue (polyvinyl acetate)
-Food Coloring
-Measuring spoons
-1 500 mL beaker
-1 250 mL beaker
-Ruler


Bouncy Ball Experiment

The objective for this experiment was to of course, make a polymer bouncy ball.
Our hypothesis is as follows: If we add cornstarch to a lab we have already preformed, the What is a Polymer Lab, then the ball will be bouncier then the first. We think that the cornstarch will act as a tighter bonding agent. The borax will first bond the monomers, then the cornstarch will act like a strengthener to the borax. Making the bond between the monomers stronger and tighter giving more of a bounce.

What we wanted to happen and what actually happened couldn't be more different.

When we stirred the glue/borax-water solution/corn starch we got something like this.





We tried as hard as we could to get the polymer (Substance A) into a nicely shaped ball, but we couldn't accomplish it. When we dropped Substance A to see if it would bounce, we noticed that Substance A never lost contact with the table. We didn't even try to do a rebound test because we knew that we wouldn't be able to record measures.

After we figured out Substance A was a failure, we decided to hastily make another ball to fix any mistakes we may have made. We made the ball and measured everything correctly this time. When we finished stirring and molding the ball, we compared our two polymers.



Our new bouncy ball (Substance B) looked more promising then Substance A, but Murphy's Law kicked in, and we were proved wrong. Substance B had the same, if not less rebound results as Substance A. Overall, this lab would be categorized as a failure.

Pffffft. :(

Look in the comments for the report on our first experiment, "Making a Plastic."