Preliminary experiments on the synthesis of plastics (1):properties of monomers

Principle
Monomers must show specific reactive positions for chain formation. One possibility for such reactive structures represent molecules / molecules fragments with multiple bonds. The reaction behaviour of styrene is examined in this experiment. The decoloration of the bromine water and of the potassium permanganate solution does not result from the reaction with the double bonds of the aromatic ring system, but from alkenyl side-chains, which also build the basic framework of polymers. In both cases occurs an addition to the double bonds of the side chain.

Learning objectives

• How to measure properties of monomers

Benefits

• Easy teaching and efficient learning by using interactive experimentation PHYWE-Software
• Experiment is part of a complete solution set with experiments for the topic Chemistry of Polymers matched with international curriculum: all topics are covered