Question: have you made anything from your plastics yet

James Jennings answered on 14 Jun 2011:

I haven’t made anything of use of of them yet, but I hope to find a use before the end of my PhD.

My project was based on a fortunate discovery- putting all the ingredients together and heating them up happened to result in some unique polymers (plastics). I have been seeing just how many different unique polymers I can make first (which seems to be alot!) before I start to look into their properties.

If you look at my profile, there is a picture of how some of my polymers look on the molecular scale. As you can see they look a bit like onions, but about 1000 times smaller than the width of a human hair! I have made every other layer of the onion hard or soft, which could give the polymer interesting properties- almost like that of a really small bouncy ball! This sort of thing is ideal for an impact resistant material- so it could be a new material for cars of the future (though this is a bit of a dream!).

One of the fun things about science is that its hard to know where research may lead. I am often being surprised by new results in my work, and really enjoy it when I do.