Sodium Silicate Lab

Can we form a sodium silicate polymer?

If the two liquids, sodium silicate solution and ethyl alcohol, are combined, then they will form form a solid polymer that bounces higher than the polyvinyl acetate polymer we formed two days ago.

The polyvinyl acetate polymer was made when glue and a solution formed of borax and water was added.

These polymers were both smooth, but the polyvinyl acetate was softer. It was easier to mold, but would change it's shape back, close to it's original form. However, the sodium silicate polymer was harder to mold, it was crumbly and did not like to be shaped, but it would hold the form that it was given. Unlike the polyvinyl acetate it did not adhere to itself easily, the polyvinyl acetate would willingly stick to itself when the sodium silicate had to be pressed into itself to stick there. The silicon ball bounced higher than the polyvinyl acetate.

Both plastics and this silicon polymer are hard and smooth. Just like plastic this silicon polymer would stay in shape unless forced to take on a different shape. Like when you step on a plastic depending on how hard it is it might crumple under the force your foot is using to press it down, this happened in a similar way when we used our hands to mold the silicon and force it into shape.

When the two liquids were mixed, the mixture became first became cloudy and then as we started to mix them together they quickly hardened and became clumps. Then when we pressed it a liquid came out of the ball. I think that it might have been the ethyl alcohol because it was thin and clear, unlike the sodium silicate solution that was thicker and a little cloudy. Our ball seemed to be grayer then those of the other groups in the class. This could simply be because something that it touched was dirty, like the table or our hands.

We had a couple of problems such as when we went back to the fridge to get our ball someone had taken it, so we decided to do tests with the new ball. Once we were finished our first ball was found and we had to wait another 10 minutes while the ball cooled in the fridge and them had to preform the second test all over again.