The Ghostbusters made slime famous with "I've been slimed" line from Bill Murray and the scenes of ectoplasm (slime) used throughout the movie.

Slime has a wide range of behaviors. It can of course be slimey and runny like mucus. But it can also be fairly stiff like a rubber ball and bounce.

Slime is made of two components. One is a polymer that dissolves in water. The other is a salt that crosslinks the polymer chains together. The two strands of polymers are made of a chain of carbon atoms. This slime has every other carbon (grey)with an oxygenatom (red)which is connected to a hydrogen (white). The polymer name is polyvinyl alcohol. The OH's are why it's called "alcohol." Vinyl is the building block. It consists of 2 carbonsand 3 hydrogensand readily connects to itself to form chains. In other polymers the OH is replaced by something else.The salt used for crosslinking these polymer chains together is borax (sodium borate). Borate has one boron atom (gold) surrounded by four oxygen atoms, each with a hydrogen. Borate's hydrogen atoms are attracted to the oxygen atoms in the polymers. Likewise, borate's oxygen atoms are attracted to the hydrogen atoms in the polymers. This holds the chains of polymers together, which gives it more stiffness. The more borate molecules the more stiff the slime will be.

Equipment needed to do experiment. You will use:

Two 250 mL beakers

A 100 mL graduated cylinder

Borax powder

Polyvinyl alcohol

1.Weigh out 4.0 grams of polyvinyl alcohol and place it in 100 mL of water.

2.Do the same thing with the borax.

3.Fill your 100mL graduated cylinder to close to the 100mL mark with hot tap water.

4.Pour the 100mL of the water into the 250mL beaker.

5.Pour the whole contents of the polyvinyl alcohol into the 100 mL of water slowly.

The polyvinyl alcohol doesn't dissolve very easily. It depends of the purity levels of polyvinyl alcohol. It may contain some residual polyvinyl acetate, which make it less water soluble. So that means you have to heat it.Get the temperature to between 160 degrees Fahrenheit and 180 degrees Fahrenheit. Keep stirring with a stirring rod.

6.Keep stirring (with a stirring rod) and heating until most of it is dissolved. It will take several minutes or more………. You won't get every bit of it too dissolve, but try to get as much as you can to dissolve.Then turn off the heat and make up the borax solution.

7.Let your tap water get hot and fill up the graduated cylinder with 100mL of hot tap water. Pour that into the beaker.

8.You can add the borax to the 10mL of hot tap water. You can use a microspatula to stir the borax to help it dissolve.

9.If you want, you can add one drop of food coloring to the polyvinyl alcohol solution.

Here's a moment of decision. According to the literature, slime can be made by adding borax solution that is from 1/20 to 1/2 the volume of the polyvinyl solution. Since we have around 100 mL of polyvinyl solution (Some of the water must have evaporated in all the heating.), 1/20 of that is 5mL and 1/2 of that is 50mL. 5mL of the borax solution would make it slimey and runny; 50mL should make it stiff like a rubber ball.

10.Measure out 25mL of the borax solution in the graduated cylinder and pour it in as you stir vigorously.

This is where a helper is handy. Someone can do the pouring as the other stirs vigorously and holds.on to the beaker. The liquid will start getting thicker in a couple of seconds. Stir until it won't let you stir. In a few seconds, the polyvinyl polymers are crosslinked by the borate molecules. This turns the liquid into a strange gel.