Activity 3.12 - Estimate and discuss some information regarding polymers

• Follow and understand employment of polymers in common life and their importance and applications in everyday life.

• Literature, internet, notes to preceding activities, worksheet.

Instruction:

Try to find (or estimate) the answers to the following 6 questions, your answers write down in boxes below and give the reasons for the answers. Consequently, find the correct information in the internet and discuss.

• Question no. 1: When the European people met the natural rubber for the first time?

In 1493, when C. Columbus and his sailors followed Indians to play with elastic ball made from sap of Hevea braziliensis tree.

• Question no. 2: When was the polyamide fiber synthetized for the first time?

In 1938, when American scientists tried to create a material which could substitute cotton and linen, materials, which squeeze and can be easily worn out. Nylon become quickly, in 1939, commercial hit, especially in the case of ladies, when nylons substituted stocking from nitrocellulose. In 1941, USA entered the WWII, and whole production of Nylon was consumed by war industry (parachutes, tires, tents, ropes etc.).

• Question no.3: What factory is the biggest producer of polymers in the Czech Republic? Why?

The biggest producer of polymers in the Czech Republic is Unipetrol Litvínov company, where especially PE and PP are produced, ca. 600 tis. tons a year. There is a long-time tradition of production of PE. Another important factor is, that PE is mostly used as a wrapping material. To this area of usage, majority of plastics is used in the CR.

• Question no. 4: What is (approximately) worldwide production of plastics (in years around 2010). Is it large production or not? Compare with other commodities!

World production of synthetic polymers is about 240 mil. tons. Production of iron is much bigger, ca. 1,414 mld. tons. On the other hand, polymers have much lower (about 8x) density, from this point of view, the difference is more reasonable. In a cars, the synthetic polymers forms 10-20% of their weight and the percentage still increases.

• Question no. 5: Sort the following areas of application of synthetic polymers regarding one-year consumption and estimate percentage of them! - cars, constructions and buildings, wrapping, special applications.

wrapping 38%, construction, buildings - 21%, cars – 7%, special applications (OLEDs etc.) – 2%. 40% are short-term applications and 60% are long-term applications.

• Question no. 6: Sort the following polymers by its one-year consumption! Estimate their percentage in consumption! – polyethylene, polyetylentereftalate, polyvinylchloride, polystyrene, polypropylene.

polyethylenes 28%, polypropylene – 18%, PVC – 12%, PS – 8% a PET – 7%.p>

Notes to discussion: