Question: what unique properties do the plastics you create have?

James Jennings answered on 13 Jun 2011:

That’s a good question, and there a number of answers!

Firstly, the plastics are made of polymers (long chain molecules) which are made by “growing” them from small molecules. The way I make them, they “grow” inside tiny “balls”, and so the plastic I make looks like a powder, and flows like water! This may not be how you usually think of plastics!

Within these balls there are two different types of polymer, which don’t like to mix with each other (think about how oil and water behave when you mix them). When they seperate, they form layers, and so the balls actually look like onions! They have many layers, one of one polymer followed by one of the other, etc. As one of the layers is hard, and one is soft, we expect that the particles might behave a bit like a bouncy ball! You won’t expect to find them in a toy shop, but they may be useful as part of a paint or a material that often takes alot of impact.

Another interesting property is that the polymers are half hydrophilic, half hydrophobic. This means that one end of the polymer likes water, and the other hates water. We can turn them into “micelles”, which are small vessels that can carry medicines through the blood stream to an exact site and treat a specific disease without harming the rest of the body.

I am going to upload photographs of my particles (taken on the electron microscope) to my profile, so please take a look to help you understand what I’ve talked about!