Thanks Jesse for the very informative video! Everyone had very clear presentations and demos. For Renee: Is an initiator the same or similar to a catalyst? Scott’s demo made me think about the environmental impact of ABS in LEGO that is featured on my channel.
Thanks for the question! A catalyst and an initiator are often very different when thinking about polymerization processes. In general, a catalyst must be regenerated after each cycle of a chemical reaction and for small molecule chemistry, it helps by speeding up the reaction. In the case of an initiator for polymers, the initiator actually forms a chemical bond with the first monomer, allowing for polymer synthesis to occur. In the case of styrene (let's call this M for monomer) polymerization, the initiator that we used in this video was an anion (let's call it I) that reacts with one monomer to form a new bond (we would get I-M as a new bond). I-M can then react with another monomer to form (I-M-M) and so forth to get our polymer (I-M-M-M-M-M). So when you are done making your final polymer, the initiator can often be found on the end of the polymer chain. However, there are some cases where a "catalyst" is acting as an initiator and a lot of times, it just becomes semantics. Often, when talking about the synthesis of polyethylene, for example, (polyethylene makes up a lot of milk jugs, plastic bags, and storage containers), we refer to these initiators as catalysts because of how the process of polymerization occurs. Hopefully that made some sense, but if not, please let us know!
Great question! So we added water to basically "stop" the reaction and make the final polymer come out of solution. In this polymerization, water is a great way to make sure that we stop the reaction and prevent it from continuing to form more polymer or any side products. And, just as you said, because water is polar and styrene/polystyrene are non-polar, it helps us acquire our final polymer because it does not want to dissolve in water (or Methanol either!). Does that make sense? let us know
This is very cool
Amazing work
Very nice explanation.
nice lab!
Thanks Jesse for the very informative video! Everyone had very clear presentations and demos.
For Renee: Is an initiator the same or similar to a catalyst?
Scott’s demo made me think about the environmental impact of ABS in LEGO that is featured on my channel.
Thanks for the question! A catalyst and an initiator are often very different when thinking about polymerization processes. In general, a catalyst must be regenerated after each cycle of a chemical reaction and for small molecule chemistry, it helps by speeding up the reaction. In the case of an initiator for polymers, the initiator actually forms a chemical bond with the first monomer, allowing for polymer synthesis to occur. In the case of styrene (let's call this M for monomer) polymerization, the initiator that we used in this video was an anion (let's call it I) that reacts with one monomer to form a new bond (we would get I-M as a new bond). I-M can then react with another monomer to form (I-M-M) and so forth to get our polymer (I-M-M-M-M-M). So when you are done making your final polymer, the initiator can often be found on the end of the polymer chain. However, there are some cases where a "catalyst" is acting as an initiator and a lot of times, it just becomes semantics. Often, when talking about the synthesis of polyethylene, for example, (polyethylene makes up a lot of milk jugs, plastic bags, and storage containers), we refer to these initiators as catalysts because of how the process of polymerization occurs. Hopefully that made some sense, but if not, please let us know!
Thanks Reene. I have a question, why did we add the water to styrene or monomer molecules although the styrene is non-polar?
Great question! So we added water to basically "stop" the reaction and make the final polymer come out of solution. In this polymerization, water is a great way to make sure that we stop the reaction and prevent it from continuing to form more polymer or any side products. And, just as you said, because water is polar and styrene/polystyrene are non-polar, it helps us acquire our final polymer because it does not want to dissolve in water (or Methanol either!). Does that make sense? let us know
In another she is quenching the reaction
Thanks 😊
@@forsresearchgroup8708 ممكن ان تعلمنا كيف صنع دهان مائي الطريقه كيف