Polymer Lab Group Investigation

Our experiment began by learning that we couldn't do our experiment. With some quick thinking, we decided that we would just redo our experiment with the glue polymer, except we would alter the amount of borax used in each test.

Our first test found my table doing exactly the same steps as the lab last Tuesday, except we used half the borax in our solution. Once we began stirring, it was clear that the loss of borax had definitely caused differences in the polymer. There was a lot of extra water at the bottom of the beaker that the glue wasn't absorbing. The polymer seemed especially gloopy and thin, probably because there wasn't enough borax to bond all of the water and glue together. Once we took the polymer out of the beaker, we noticed that it was stickier than the original polymer. This may have been because the borax wasn't there to make the polymer more of a gel-like consistency rather than a glue-like one. The polymer was also more malleable than the first one, due to the lack of borax for solidification. When we tested the rebound of a quarter-sized chunk of the polymer, we got an average bounce of 7 cm. This was lower than the average of the normal glue polymer. The lower score may have been explained by a less together substance, that would make retaining a ball-like shape difficult. After the rebound test was done, we poured 25 mL of borax water onto our polymer and it hardened to the point where it was essentially the original polymer in its properties.

For our second test, we did just as we had in the first test and last week's lab, but we used 4 teaspoons of borax in the mixture. When we mixed the glue and borax water, it started to bond together very quickly. This polymer was probably the strangest we had created up to this point. As we inspected it, we noticed that on the outside, there was basically a coat of watered down glue that ran off on our hands. The center of the polymer, however, was very solid and hard. The reason for this drastic contrast must have ha something to do with the excessive borax that we used, whether that means that it caused a hardening in only a small amount of the polymer or that it kept the glue on the outside in a liquid state. Once a lot of the liquid glue had run off, we tested the rebound of our polymer. It scored an average of 12 cm, the highest of any of the glue-based polymers. This may have been because the extra borax concentrated the glue so that it could bounce higher.

My hypothesis about the rebound of the polymer with reduced borax was supported. There was a lower rebound because the polymer was not as solid as the original one we created. My hypothesis about the polymer with added borax was not supported, because i thought the borax would make the polymer more dense and it wouldn't bounce as high. However, it had the highest average bounce of any of the glue-based polymers. An error that may have occurred may have been in the measurement of our glue, as we had to judge the 40 mL by eye. However, we approximated as best we could, so I don't think there was much of an issue. This experiment was a success in finding out the effects of adding or subtracting borax from the glue-based polymer solution.