Liam Barrett

Plastics; are they a benefit or a disaster?

In our modern day life, we use plastics almost every day and are necessary for most people to do everyday tasks.

Plastics are synthetic materials which are made from polymersi. Polymers are very large molecules made from lots of monomers joined together using a process called polymerisation. ii Many alkenes can be monomers as they all have Carbon=Carbon double bonds (C=C), however once they become polymers, they no longer have the double bond and therefore become saturated. During polymerisation, the monomer is repeated throughout the polymer. In the case of the diagram, the monomer ethene loses its C=C double bond and becomes part of the chain of polyethene. ii

Alkenes are extracted from crude oil through fractional distillation. In fractional distillation, crude oil is heated to vapour and passed through a tall tower called a fractioning column. The fractioning column gets cooler as it goes up so the hottest part of the column is at the bottom and the coolest part of the column is at the top. The smallest hydrocarbon chains condense at the top of the column where it is the coolest and the longest hydrocarbon chains condense at the top at the hottest. Due to this, the fractions that come from the top of the fractioning column are generally gases at room temperature and very easy to ignite whereas those found at the bottom are very viscous liquids or even solids and are very difficult to ignite.

Liam Barrett Plastic Bag Stretching Investigation Aim: To find out which plastic bags are the strongest, therefore last the longest and can be reused more often. Equipment: Five or more different types of plastic bag Ruler Clamp stand Clamp Hanging masses Bulldog clip

Method: 1. Cut five 64cm2 pieces from each of the plastic bags. 2. Set up the clamp stand 50cm high above the table 3. Clip the piece of plastic to the bulldog clip then hang the bulldog clip from the clamp stand. 4. Hole-punch the middle of the piece of plastic and put the hanging masses through this hole. Start from 50g and increase the weight of the hanging masses by 50g each time. 5. With every addition of 50g in weight, record the length of how much the plastic bad has increased in size. 6. Keep adding weights until the bag breaks; record both the weight that the bag broke at and the length of the bag once it had broken. 7. Repeat these steps for the other pieces of plastic and the other plastic bags. Ensure that all results are recorded. 8. Get the average breaking weight and stretching size for all of the pieces of plastic bag. Results: (B.F.L is Bag for Life) (Std is a Standard Carrier Bag) Mass on bag 50g 100g 150g 200g 250g 300g 350g 400g 450g 500g 550g 600g 650g 700g 750g Waitrose B.F.L 9cm 9cm 9cm 9cm 9cm 9cm 9cm 9.8cm 9.8cm 9.8cm 9.8cm 9.8cm 9.8cm 9.8cm STILL NOT BROKEN Van Hage Std 8cm 8.1cm 8.1cm 8.1cm 8.2cm 8.3cm 8.4cm 8.4cm BROKEN Tesco Std 8.7cm 8.9cm 9cm 9.1cm 9.2cm 9.3cm BROKEN Marks & Spencer Std 8cm 8cm 8.2cm 8.3cm 8.7cm 9cm 9cm 9.1cm 9.2cm 9.3cm 9.5cm BROKEN

Liam Barrett Although we only tested a small sample, the experiment shows that bags for life are stronger than normal standard bags with the Waitrose Bag for Life stretching less than 10% extra of its normal size and still not breaking after 750g of weight applied on just 64cm2 of the bag. If this were to proportionally increase to the size of a full sized bag, a lot more weight would be able to be carried. Instead of just comparing plastic carrier bags, a similar test could be executed testing how much a paper carrier bag can hold before breaking or a cloth carrier bag could hold before breaking. Neither of the methods used to make paper and cloth plastic bags involve the use of crude oil, therefore could possibly be a better for the environment. How are plastic bags made?

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=what+are+plastics&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:enUS:official&client=firefox-a#hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&hs=KFf&rls=org.mozilla:enUS:official&q=plastic&tbs=dfn:1&tbo=u&sa=X&ei=6qwSTtWgKNCEhQeAvaT7DQ&ved=0CEEQkQ4&bav=on.2,o r.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=59afda2a596a80d7&biw=1280&bih=920
ii

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/science/ocr_gateway/carbon_chem/5_making_polymers3.shtml