Sciencemadness Discussion Board
Not logged in [Login ]
Go To Bottom

Printable Version  
Author: Subject: OTC polymers
helzblack
Harmless
*




Posts: 31
Registered: 6-8-2019
Member Is Offline


[*] posted on 22-7-2024 at 13:26
OTC polymers


Which polymers you know of that are cheap and easy to make?
Silicone resin is useful and not that expensive, yet I wonder if this if there are cheaper polymers that can be used to make molds.

Urea-formaldehyde is fragile but very easy to make. Then using sodium silicate and ethanol makes something more plastic and elastic but it polymerizes before it can take the shape of the object.

I am wondering. Are there plasticizers that are also OTC? Or any monomers that have a curing time, ie, they take time to polymerize.

Plasticizers seem to always be complicated organic molecules. What are your suggestions?
View user's profile View All Posts By User
j_sum1
Administrator
********




Posts: 6306
Registered: 4-10-2014
Location: At home
Member Is Offline

Mood: Most of the ducks are in a row

[*] posted on 22-7-2024 at 14:44


What a broad question.
Choice of polymer depends largely on application.
Cost will vary widely depending on what you are doing. But need not be expensive. There is a recent YT video on making silicones from silicate kitty litter. It does not get any cheaper than that. Milk is OTC if you want a casein-based polymer. You can process polystyrene to get styrene which will then polymerise on its own even if you don't want it to. Perhaps the widest choice of monomers would come from depolymerising existing polymer materials. That is essentially free. Then you can do what you want.

Like so many projects, you need to have a specific target before you can get any meaningful advice.
View user's profile View All Posts By User
helzblack
Harmless
*




Posts: 31
Registered: 6-8-2019
Member Is Offline


[*] posted on 23-7-2024 at 03:29


I know of the kitty litter stuff but the problem is that the resulting plastic is not hard enough and it polymerizes too quickly. To make a mold, something that is hard, but not too hard is needed, just like silicone resin.

That is why I asked either and specifically.

OTC plasticizers to make the urea-formadelhyde more plastic, less brittle

OTC inhibitors for the cross-linking that give the kitty litter plastic enough time to take on the shape, and form one single body instead of tiny nodules.
View user's profile View All Posts By User
helzblack
Harmless
*




Posts: 31
Registered: 6-8-2019
Member Is Offline


[*] posted on 23-7-2024 at 03:57


Alternatively there is a NileRed video where he extracts the plasticizer from vynil gloves but in low yields. I wonder if there is any way to extract the plasticizers from other plastics in higher yields, reshape the plastic and then add it again? Or to partially depolimerize it, which I have heard is hard, reshape and polymerize again?
View user's profile View All Posts By User
Texium
Administrator
********




Posts: 4566
Registered: 11-1-2014
Location: Salt Lake City
Member Is Offline

Mood: PhD candidate!

[*] posted on 23-7-2024 at 04:38


You need to be more clear about what you want to do with this plastic to get the answers you’re looking for. Clearly you have a specific use case in mind, but you aren’t sharing it. That’s not helpful.



Come check out the Official Sciencemadness Wiki
They're not really active right now, but here's my YouTube channel and my blog.
View user's profile Visit user's homepage View All Posts By User
Texium
Administrator
Thread Moved
23-7-2024 at 04:38
bnull
Hazard to Others
***




Posts: 386
Registered: 15-1-2024
Location: South of the border, wherever the border is.
Member Is Offline

Mood: Dazed and confused.

[*] posted on 23-7-2024 at 06:24


Glyceryl triacetate is a plasticiser that is also used as food additive, hence OTC.

As said above, the question has so many possible answers, and these answers depend upon the destination, that the question is unanswerable as it is. Would you mind to tell us what is the intended use of the molds? Are you casting metal, making candles or popsicles, counterfeiting sculptures?

Silicone can be used in molds to make candles but not in metal casting; litharge-glycerine, although not exactly a polymer, can be used for molds that you want to use (practically) forever (since it gets even harder as it ages) but not with molten metals and strong acids; gypsum, not a polymer, can be used with low melting alloys (I had no problems below 350 °C).




Quod scripsi, scripsi.

B. N. Ull

P.S.: Did you know that we have a Library?
View user's profile View All Posts By User
helzblack
Harmless
*




Posts: 31
Registered: 6-8-2019
Member Is Offline


[*] posted on 23-7-2024 at 08:14


Molds for wax. Just something that is hard enough to take on the fine details in the wax, and elastic to remove the original model without breaking the mold.
View user's profile View All Posts By User

  Go To Top