Alexandra Bermudez
CHM 2045L - 026
Michael Mclean
September 19th, 2013
MATERIALS BY DESIGN
INTRODUCTION
When we were once small children who loved to play, we came across a toy which entertained us by its rapid movement when we threw it against the floor or any hard surface. This toy is known as the bouncy ball. Usually bouncy balls are made of natural rubber, ways have been discovered in which bouncy balls can be made from leather, plastics, and other types of polymers. In this experiment we created not just any regular bouncy ball, but one whose materials are not harmful to the environment. In other words, we created the perfect eco-friendly bouncy ball. The materials we used to create this eco-friendly ball were polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and polyvinyl acetate (PVAc) and we reacted them with sodium borate (borax). Polyvinyl acetate
(PVA) is a water-soluble synthetic polymer. It has the idealized formula [CH2CH]n. Polyvinyl acetate (PVA) is a synthetic resin polymer. The chemical formula of this component is
(C4H6O2)n. The last component is sodium borate (Borax). It is an important boron compound, a mineral, and a salt of boric acid. The chemical formula for sodium borate is (Na2B4O7·10H2O).
In this experiment, both the sodium borate (Borax) and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) were separately diluted in water to form a solution of 4% m/v. This experiment was conducted in such a way that we took into consideration the person who will in the future buy the bouncy ball and play with it, as well as the environmental conditions to which our final product can be exposed. Having this in mind lead us to create the perfect bouncy ball with the right amount of rebound rate and tolerance to weather conditions. Our outcome is a bouncy ball which will make for a fun and interesting play session in any environmental setting.
METHODS
Our experiment was composed of three different trials in which we mixed our materials to make
a