Done by group Geniuses at Khalifa School. Under supervision from Al-Bairaq

1. AL-Bairaq
I am Discovering Materials 13th Cycle
Polymers
GENIUSES
SULTAN AL QASSMI ALI AL
QAHTANI
ABDULLA ABDULGHANI YOUSEF AL MOHAMMED

2. Polymers
• A polymer is a large molecule that is made up
of repeating subunit connected to each other by
chemical bonds .
• Poly- means "many" and - mer means "part" or
"segment". Mono means "one". So, monomers are
those itty bitty molecules that can join together to
make a long polymer chain.
• Do you need some examples of polymers ? Here is a
list of materials that are polymers :
1. Anything plastic.
2. Proteins , such as hair , nails and tortoise shell.
3. Cellulose in paper and trees .

3. Activities 1: Changing
Polymer Pellets
 Materials and instruments used :
- Two beakers – 30 mL of plain water – 10 mL of salt water
– filter paper - [ 1g of polyacrylamide pellets] – top loading
balances .
 Procedure
1. Put 0.5 grams of polyacrylamide pellets in beaker (A) and
beaker (B) .
2. Add 10 mL of plain water in beaker (A) and beaker (B) , and
leave it for 10 minutes .
3. Filter the pellets out and weigh them using the top loading
balance and note the values.
4. Add 10 mL of plain water in beaker (A) and 10 mL of salt water
in beaker (B) , and leave it for ten minutes .
5. Filter the pellets out and weigh them using top loading balance
and note the values .

4. Activities 1: Changing Polymer Pellets
Results :
 The result after the process (3) is the pellets ion beaker (A) and
beaker (B) absorbs water and its weight increased .
 The result after process (5) is that the pellets in beaker(A) absorbs
plain water and its weight increased . Then we pored some salt
water in beaker (B) it did not absorb the water and the weight had
decreased to half of the original weight .
Table record
Beakers Before the
experiment
10 mL of plain
water
Added plain
water to (A) and
salt water to (B)
(A) 0.52g 6.7g 12.6g
(B) 0.53g 6.73g 3.36g

5. Activities 2: Hunting for Polymer
Products
 Synthetic Polymers : Are those which are obtains from lab or industry .
 Classification of Synthetic Polymers : There are a lot of types of
Synthetic polymers and plastics , fibers , gels or viscous liquids are just
some of them .
 The Synthetic polymers are found in : plastics , nylon and many others .
 Natural Polymers : Are those which are obtained from nature .
 Classification of Natural Polymers : There are a lot types of natural
polymers like cotton , hair , wood , keratin , rubber these are just some
of them .
 The Natural Polymers : They are found in silk , wool , DNA , cellulose
and proteins .

6. Activities 3: Comparing the Viscosity of
Liquids
 Viscosity : is a measure of the resistance of a fluid to deformation
under shear stress . It is commonly perceived as “thickness”, or
resistance to pouring . Viscosity describes a fluid’s internal
resistance to flow and maybe thought of as a measure of fluid
friction .
 Objectives : To observe the effect of molecular weight on viscosity .
 Procedure : We compared the viscosity of three liquids having
different molecular weights : Methanol , Ethylene , Glycol , Glycerol .
 Results : The glycerol has the highest viscosity , while the methanol
has the lowest viscosity .
 Conclusion : The higher the molecular weight is , the higher the
viscosity is .

7. Activities 4: Testing the Strength of
Different Polymer Films
 Objectives : The properties of the polymer films make them useful in
some products .
 Procedure : We have prepared 3 films of polyacrylamide in 3
different molecular weights .
 Results : polyacrylamide260,000 has the highest tensile strength .
 Tensile Strength : Is a measurement of the force that is required
to pull something .
 Conclusion : The more the molecular weight is , the more the tensile
strength is .

8. Design Project Designing a
Humidity Sensor
 Objective : To design a humidity sensor without
using electricity .
 Procedure :
1. Mix 5 portions of polyacrylamide with 3 portions of
CoCl2 indicator and 2 portions of butanone.
2. Put the sensor in the front of the hair dryer .
3. Put the sensor on top of the boiling water so that the
hot steam would react with the sensor .
Turned to Blue Turned from blue
to red
Time 4 min 30 sec
Result Table

9. Design Project Designing a
Humidity Sensor
In conclusion : The humidity
sensor turned into blue at the dry weather
and turned into red at the humid weather .

10. Absorbing oils by polymers
 The most important thing about our project is that its useful for
removing oils from our cloths or furniture by polymers . Well its
important in Qatar to use some polymers to remove some liquids
from the fabrics like for an example , if you are at a restaurant and
you spilled a sauce or any kind of liquid on your T-shirt the
restaurant could provide the polymer to absorb the liquid from the
T-shirt .
 The special thing about this project is that its easy to make and also
use .

11. ABSORBING OILS USING
POLYMERS
Hypothesis
We expect that the starch and cotton
would absorb the oil spot that’s
found on our daily cloths .

12. Absorbing oils using polymers
Methods and Materials
 The that we are using is :
 Starch
 Cotton
 An T-shirt on it an oil spot
The method is we will use cotton and starch in a plaster to
remove oil spots from cloths and we will iron the T-shirt .

13. Absorbing oils using polymers
Results:
We discovered that the oil spots
on the T-shirt had disappeared
and the starch and cotton had
absorbed the oil spot on the T-
shirt .

14. Absorbing oils using polymers
Recommendations
 We hope to use our project as
a product in homes because
the materials of our projects
are available and at a very
cheap price and ecofriendly .

15. Conclusions
(Overall of the polymers )
. The use of simple things may shorten
time , effort and money . We hope to
use our project in a product in homes
.

16. Acknowledgment
Many thanks to my teachers, school and AL-Bairaq
team from Center for Advanced Materials (CAM),
Qatar University for supporting us during our
journey with a AL-Bairaq.
Also, I would like to thank the sponsors UNESCO,
Qatar National Commission, and Shell.