What makes up plastic?

Have you ever wondered what plastic was really made out of instead of just oil? I have too, that’s why we are going to discuss how plastic is made and where it is from. Plastic is made from many elements that occur in nature abundantly for example, gas,oil,coal, minerals and plants but thats not all we are going to talk about how many different kinds that we use in everyday life.

“Most of these plastics are made from polymers”.

Most plastics that we use every day is a polymeric material that is able to be molded or shaped with the application of heat. Most plastics are quite malleable but it all depends on the chemical compound. A glassy polymer such as polystyrene is stiff, and it shows high ratios of stress which means it can withstand some pressure. Some materials like plastic bottles and recording tape require stiffness and high dimensional stability. The last characteristics of plastic is its toughness which means that it is able to absorb more of a impact before breaking. Most of these plastic are an extremely bad conducted of heat, and you can decrease the conductivity even more by using a gas to spread out the atoms. For example, styrofoam cups used for hot beverages has a thermal conductivity of 1/4 of regular plastics. (Britannica.com)

There is many types of plastics that we use daily that are made out of the same substances including carbon, nitrogen, sulfur, and hydrogen. But there is two main groups that plastics seem to be grouped into like thermoplastics(which soften from heat and then harden once cooled) and thermosets(which never soften once hardened). Examples of thermo plastics include

Thermoplastic examples

• Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS)-
• Polycarbonate (pc)-is a synthetic resin that is linked through carbonate groups.
• Polyethylene (PE)- its a tough light resin that is the most commonly used plastic, its used in plastic bottles, bags, and packaging.
• Polyethylene terephthalate (PET)- used for clothing and containers for liquids and food.
• Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE)- teflon
• Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC)- used for piping, flooring and sheeting.
• Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) -plexy glass
• polypropylene (PP)- used for ropes, fabrics and molded objects.
• polystyrene (PS)- used for protective packaging for CDS and DVDS etc.
• Expanded polystyrene (EPS)- is known for being used with concrete in green homes.

Examples of thermosets

• Epoxide (EP) an organic compound that contains three-membrane rings that contain one oxygen atom and two carbon atoms
• Phenol-formaldehyde(PF) is used for lab tables,coating and adhesives.
• Polyurethane (PUR)- used primarily for paints, varnishes and adhesives.
• Unsaturated polyester resin (UP) used for bulk molding and the toner of laser printers. (what are plastics and how are plastics made.com)