Plastic as a POLYMER

What is organic compound?

Life is based on carbon ability to form diverse structures and an endless number of different carbon based molecules. The study of carbon containing compound has come to be known as Organic Chemistry. The food we intake, the fragrance we inhale, the colors we see are predominantly due to organic compounds. Organic chemistry deals not only with the chemistry of life and the natural carbon compounds but also with the huge, increasing number of synthetic carbon compound. There is hardly any walk of life where we do not need the organic compounds. Plastic is one of the instance of organic compound.

Forty years ago, anything made of plastic was considered "cheap." That’s certainly not true today when plastics are used in thousands of products ranging from computers, automobile parts and important medical equipment to toys, cookware, sports equipment, and even clothes. And the plastics industry continues to grow rapidly.

                  

Introduction of plastic

The first important plastic, celluloid which is a mixture of cellulose nitrate, camphor, and alcohol and is thermoplastic. However, plastics did not come into modern industrial use until after the production of Bakelite . Bakelite, is made by the polymerization of phenol and formaldehyde through  thermosetting.

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How polymerization occur?

Plastics are synthetic materials, which means that they are artificial, or manufactured. The building blocks for making plastics are small organic molecules - molecules that contain carbon along with other substances. They generally come from oil (petroleum) or natural gas, but they can also come from other organic materials such as wood fibers, corn, or banana peels. Each of these small molecules is known as a monomer ("one part") because it's capable of joining with other monomers to form very long molecule chains called polymers("many parts") during a chemical reaction called polymerization. Polymerization is often started by combining the monomers through the use of a catalyst - a substance that aids a chemical reaction without undergoing any permanent chemical change itself. 

1.    Crude oil, the unprocessed oil that comes out of the ground, contains hundreds of different hydrocarbons, as well as small amounts of other materials. The job of an oil refinery is to separate these materials and also to break down hydrocarbon into smaller one.

2.    A petrochemical plant receives refined oil containing the small monomers they need and creates polymers through chemical reactions.

3.    A plastics factory buys the end products of a petrochemical plant - polymers in the form of resins - introduces additives to modify or obtain desirable properties, then molds or otherwise forms the final plastic products.

An example of polymerization,

production of nylon-6,6

Structure of polymer

Many common classes of polymers are composed of hydrocarbons. These polymers are specifically made of small units bonded into long chains. Carbon makes up the backbone of the molecule and hydrogen atoms are bonded along the backbone. Below is a diagram of polyethylene, the simplest polymer structure.

There are polymers that contain only carbon and hydrogen (for example, polypropylene, polybutylene, polystyrene, and polymethylpentene). Even though the basic makeup of many polymers is carbon and hydrogen, other elements can also be involved. Oxygen, chlorine, fluorine, nitrogen, silicon, phosphorous, and sulfur are other elements that are found in the molecular makeup of polymers. Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) contains chlorine. Nylon contains nitrogen and oxygen. Teflon contains fluorine. Polyesters and polycarbonates contain oxygen. Vulcanized rubber and thiokol contain sulfur. There are also some polymers that, instead of having carbon backbones, have silicon or phosphorous backbones. These are considered inorganic polymers. One of the most famous silicon-based polymers is Silly Putty^TM

Enviromental issue

Plastic waste in Pacific Ocean

Marine life will be threaten if wastage of plastic did not solve in the future.

Plastics are durable and degrade very slowly; the chemical bonds that make plastic so durable make it equally resistant to natural processes of degradation. Since the 1950s, one billion tons of plastic have been discarded and may persist for hundreds or even thousands of years. Perhaps the biggest environmental threat from plastic comes from nurdles, which are the raw material from which all plastics are made. They are tiny pre-plastic pellets that kill large numbers of fish and birds that mistake them for food. Prior to the ban on the use of CFCs in extrusion of polystyrene the production of polystyrene contributed to the depletion of the ozone layer; however, non-CFCs are currently used in the extrusion process. Nowdays, there are quite often the nation concern about this environmental issue. Most of the country are go towards protecting the environment by using biodegrable bag instead of the plastic. This is why many slogan were being launch such as ‘Go Green’

Alertness of public to use recycle bag rather than plastic bag.

1.5 tonne of plastic bottles are produced annually, it is the time to Go Green!

A 6 year-old child also knew what are '3R' stands for, do you know that?

Is it impossible for human live without plastic products? As we insist on to be changed, we can do it!

Does it shocked you?

New era of '4R' , refill the plastic bottles rather pay for another plastic bottles.