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 Chemistry Section A : Everyday materials and their properties

Part 4: Practical Work

Designing packaging materials.

Aim: To design two types of packaging.

  1. To use to carry something fragile through the post.
  2. An insulated container.

Materials supplied.

1 metre Sellotape
1 A4 sheet of aluminium foil
1 A4 sheet paper
1 plastic bag
1 m cotton thread
5 straws
1 piece of cotton wool

Task

a. Make your models (size is not important).

b. Write a report to explain your designs. Include:

  1. A labelled diagram of your model.
  2. Why you used each material, include the properties.
  3. How you could test your model.

c. Prepare a 5 minute presentation to give to the rest of the class.

Experiment: Testing materials

TESTS:

1. Brilliance: (shininess)- Polish the surface of the material, if it reflects the light it is likely to be a metal.
2. Conduction of electricity: Set up the circuit as shown below, and test the materials, if the bulb lights it is a conductor and hence a metal, if an insulator then an organic or ceramic material. Exception: Carbon.
3. Test of magnetism: Note which materials are attracted to a magnet.
   
  ** The following tests are specific to plastics**
4. Solubility: Place small samples of plastic in 10mL acetone in a beaker if after 5 minutes there is sign of it dissolving then it is or contains polystrene
5. Floatability: Place samples of plastics in
  1. Pure water
     
  2. Salty water

If it floats in pure water it is likely to be a plastic that contains Polyethylene and/or polypropylene.
If it only floats in salty water then its likely to be a polystyrene
If it sinks in both it is likely to be PVC or PET
6. Effect of hot water.

Put small samples of plastics in hot water and watch what happens. If it curls up at the edges then the plastics is HDPE or LDPE
7. Testing for the presence of chlorine. (Teacher only)

Warm a piece of copper wire in a Bunsen flame and attach it to a sample of plastic and place in the flame. The presence of a blue/green colour shows the presence of chlorine, hence the plastic is PVC.

Materials to test:

  • Metals: Copper, Aluminium, Zinc , and Iron
  • Plastics: LDPE, HDPE, PVC, PP, PS and PETE
  • Glass
  • Ceramic

 

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