Physical Properties of Polymers – Formal report – due Oct. 27
A formal report is required for the polymers experiment. It should include the following: title page, abstract, introduction, experimental method, results and discussion, conclusions, references, and appendix. See the handout on writing lab reports (on Blackboard) for details on these sections.
Make sure the following sections contain the specific information below:
Introduction: Include a brief background on polymer structure and morphology including thermoplastic polymers with crystalline and amorphous regions. Define the glass transition temperature and describe the glass transition. Describe factors that influence the % crystallinity in a polymer, and how % crystallinity affects polymer properties. The Polymer Chemistry Resources webpages and Macrogalleria are good sources of information. (Your answers to the prelab questions should help you to get started on this section.) State the objectives of the experiment.
Experimental method: Include the make and model of the specific instruments you used. Be sure to include the experimental conditions you used for your polymer like heating rate, cooling rate, purge gas flow rate, number of runs and purges, etc. Specify the source of the polymer samples.
Results and Discussion:
Include your TGA and DSC thermograms as figures within the Results and Discussion section of the report. Include all the thermograms (class data) in the Appendix. Include a table that contains melting points (onset and peak), heats of fusion (from initial heats), decomposition temperatures and glass transition temperatures (if applicable) for all polymers studied (so include other students’ data). If there was an induced crystallization from the initial heat also include crystallization temperatures (onset and peak) and the heat of crystallization.
Using the heats of fusion (and crystallization if applicable) from the initial heat, calculate the % crystallinities for all the polymers and report these in a table. These are the original % crystallinities from the polymer samples. Also calculate and report the % crystallinities from the second heat and after a quench (for the PET sample).
Report % crystallinities for all polymers as determined from the density.
Incorporate in your discussion of the results the answers to the questions in the “Things to ponder” sections of the lab handout.
Appendix:
Lab notebook pages which should include answers to the prelab questions.
All thermograms and gas pycnometry data.
Spreadsheet and formula page with gridlines and showing row and column headings.