Might I suggest a tier list of cursed polymers? Substances such as polythiazyl and polyacetylene would be perfect for this! Not only are they unusually structured, but they are also electrically conductive.
@@nanocodethespectator2646 It’s really interesting actually, considering most polymers have super low conductivity! Polyacetylene on its own is not very conductive at all, but you can put a mobile positive or negative charge on some of the acetylenes by passing it past something like a metal catalyst and stretch it out to make the fibers go the same way, which gives it a conductivity of roughly a tenth of regular wire! Polymers can get pretty interesting for sure.
Nylon absolutely has to be higher. Solid nylons are fantastic for enclosures, boxes, casings for power tools, toys, prototyping, and on and on. It's rigid compared to ABS for example and forms excellent composites with carbon fiber, glass fiber, etc. Strong stuff and it's really quite common
My favorite polymer is Polyoxymethylene. Sort of cousin of a Paraformaldehyde, that didn't do crack, went for college, was financially responsible and turn into an upstanding person. It's really nice to build mechanical things from, like cogs and gears, as it is fairly durable. It also have low friction when rubbed against itself. Also also, it is biologically neutral, for a lot of polymer medical stuff if it is not made out of PVDF - it's likely made out of POM.
As a student looking to get into material science, it's currently my favourite polymer alongside PTFE due to it's physical properties, though my opinion is basically as useful as looking at an expensive handbag through a glass window.
Oh no no no. You keep that shitty plastic away from me. Having worked with it in injection molding it is not fun to work with. Worst part is its gas. Burns your eyes, throat and nose if concentrated because someone left a barrel full sit there at temp for 10 minutes.
As a polymer chemist I will have the full responsibility for my work for you to use your work to get the information I needed in order with your help and advice.
Talking about micropipettes. I’ve recently looked a bit into the history and before our modern mechanical micropipette, people used drawn glass capillaries that had calibrated markings on them to transfer specific volumes. You needed to make and calibrate these pipettes for each volume and given how fragile they are you often had to make new ones… The first modern mechanical piston-driven micropipette was the Eppendorf Marburg that was made 60 years ago. So, happy to live in the age of convenience…
Yes and no, Heinrich Schnitger who invented the micropipette worked at the University of Marburg hence the name of the first pipette. The Marburg virus escaped from lab animals held in a pharma company in the same city. So, yes named after the same city but from a different institution.
How can you rate paraformaldehyde that lowly when it's structurally equivalent to polyoxymethylene? POM is a super useful polymer for injection molding. Probably every chemist has worked with Keck joint clips in his life which are typically made from POM. Additionally, POM was instrumental for Staudinger to validate his theory of macromolecules.
Paraformaldehyde is doing crack and kidnapping babies, while it's brother Polyoxymethylene is running non-profit charity and cures cancer. And yeah, POM is my favorite. Such a nice plastic for mechanical applications - strong, low friction, easy to work with.
@@JoshStLouis314 the metal ones don't like nitrogen oxides or nitric acid either. I generally accept that at least one is going to die if I'm distilling nitric acid.
Had an interesting experience working with PEEK recently. I work in material testing, a little while ago we were hired to provide a report of conformance to a MIL-spec for a number of polymers from various suppliers that the client was using to manufacture something for the military. Most of the work related to this was composition analysis to determine halogen content, and handled by our chemistry department, but specifically for the PEEK (required because the client had never used this material conforming to this standard before) we had to do "exudation testing". In summary exudation testing is compressing a sample of some polymer/elastomeric compound under a certain load for a certain time period and seeing if any liquid "exudate" comes out... we were trying to juice plastic. This makes some sense for soft rubbers or other materials that may be porous, etc. but PEEK is close to as hard as plastic gets and is roughly half as strong as mild steel. No surprise, it did not juice. If you think trying in vain to juice plastic is worse than licking rocks, please comment down below.
PEEK is an amazing polymer, and it can under certain circumstance break steel parts in injection moulding machines. Like that one time where a co-apprentice of mine left it in the cylinder for 48hrs, moisture got in and on monday I just hear a very loud PONG from a machine on the other side of the workshop. The screw broke and the machine moved a good few centimetres.
Nylon, PA 6 and PA66 reinforced with glass fibers are pretty common used for sturdy casing and holders. It's really common in automobiles At work we make even shaft parts of rifles with it
Peek awesome. Its tolerance to organic solvents is just so much better than many other polymers. Background: We are using peek 3d printed Microfluifics reactors and require high temperatures and harsh solvents.
Fun fact, All marching snare drum heads are made out of Kevlar! Quad heads out of nylon.. They make fantastic sounds. Going through, I'm always thinking if the material might work as a drum head :) The hard plastics nah, but I would be curious about that synthetic rubber for example..
PEGs are awesome for protein crystallization. I think most structural biology labs collect PEGs with various molecular weights to crystalize target protein.
PVDF is S tier because its a piezoelectric polymer used for flexible transducers and similar. Imagine a fan which acts like a fish tail or a flexible microphone or speaker that can be put anywhere.
I'd move Nylon (both of them up). Besides fibers it is also used as an engineering resin - most plastic gears and parts are made from Nylon due to its toughness and other properties. I would also move polyvinyl butyral up. It is not a coating on car windshields, it is a layer between two glass sheets that form the windshield and is what makes auto safety glass safe.
As a machinist the lack of mention of acetal plastics (Delrin, pretty much the go-to plastic for an easy to machine material that ticks off a lot of moderate engineering requirements, ie; moderate strength, moderate light stability, moderate chemical resistance, moderate price), and the low score of PEEK, which is basically the super material of mechanical/structural plastic applications. It's viewed like the titanium of plastic.
IMO the two Nylons should go in 'A' Tier. Also, you didn't include another 'S' Tier polymer - polyvinyl chloride. Still, it's a great video I enjoy these
Having worked in manufacturing, I can say that they're a pain. They're incredibly messy to cut, way too soft to grip (you'll leave marks and/or completely deform it if you clamp it even slightly too hard), and for SOME REASON it can actually wear down carbide cutting inserts. One of my coworkers told me a story of how some parts they were making out of Teflon at a previous job expanded thermally so much during the manufacturing process they needed to let the compled part sit in the temperature-controlled inspection lab for a few hours before actually being inspected because it would shrink to be within the (not particularly tight) tolerances.
PTFE is also used as a binder for solid propellants. It’s used in ramjets where boron is used as a fuel (you need the fluorine to really get the boron to burn), and for some pulsed plasma thrusters
As a rouge biologist I'll mention that while the common biologist's definition of life is one that requires a organism made up of cell(s), bilayer membranes enclosing a watery interior with a DNA genome that encodes instructions for proteins that are read as mRNAs by ribosomes, there are life...ish things made up of single molecules of nucleic acid or amino acid polymers. These can't exist without hijacking the components of cellular life though, hence them being only lifeish. Though they might resemble some of the precursor molecules that eventually turned into life. There are a number of virus like things called viroids that as far as we know only infect flowering plants and are composed of only a single circular ribonucleic acid polymer (though most of its bases end up pairing). There are also prions which are folding variants of proteins that are able to cause the healthy form of the protein to switch to the prion form. Thus they are essentially the protein equivalent of a zombie. Which is appropriate because in animals they tend to exist as neural proteins and thus infection results in a terrifying array of symptoms. Before I mention the symptoms though I'll mention an interesting property. Multiple prion foldings of the same protein exist and each only creates itself. If you have a solution of a prion forming protein, certain prion disease are heritable, if you leave it for weeks it will eventually all turn into one random prion form. However if you "infect" the solution with a strain from a patient the entire solution will turn to that form within hours. And if you infect it from a patient with a different form the same will occur. As to the symptoms after you're infected you're healthy for years or even decades, again an appropriately zombie like latent period, until your brain slowly turns into a sponge and over the course of a year or two as you get dementia, become paranoid, go insane, become unable to control your movements, maybe go blind, and then die. There are no treatments. Oh and to continue to be zombie like they're nearly impossible to destroy, normal cooking temperatures do nothing, proteases don't degrade them, and they're chemically resistant so they can persist in the environment for years. One of the WHO recommendations for sterilizing contaminated surgical equipment is to immerse it in a sodium hydroxide solution and then autoclave it in that same solution for half an hour, wash it, and then run it through another standard sterilization procedure.
Fun video follow-up idea: rate all the “hey, you left this out” polymers in the comments against the ones in S tier. My suggestion is polybenzimidazole. It’s pretty much synthetic asbestos in that it won’t melt, won’t catch fire and remains serviceable at extremely high temperatures. This is what firefighter turnout gear is made from; NASCAR driving uniforms are Nomex.
I would love to see a video that breaks down how the shape of a molecule, such as Sodium Polyacrylate, is able to interact with H2O to pull and hold it. Understanding how the two interact at a technical level is nice... but visualizing what is actually happening at the chemical level would be fascinating!
One very large volume polymer you missed (besides PVC) is styrene/butadiene rubber, which is the main ingredient in vehicle tires. Polyethylene comes in a number of variants, such as high density polyethylene (essentially pure polyethylene, which is fairly stiff and brittle), linear low density polyethylene (copolymers with 1-butene or 1-octene, which are flexible and tough) and ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene (extreme tensile strength), which are all made using transition metal catalysts. And then there is low density polyethylene (which has high melt strength and is used in blown films), which is made via free-radical polymerization under super-critical conditions. Commercial polypropylene is almost all isotactic polypropylene, with some atactic polypropylene (used mostly as a sealant, although it was the original glue for post-it notes, now replaced with low molecular weight polyacrylates). I've made syndiotactic polypropylene, but I don't think that has ever been commercialized. Saran (old) was actually a copolymer of vinylidene chloride with a few percent of vinylchloride (the pure polymers are highly crystalline, meaning they are stiff and somewhat brittle, adding a little VC to VDC breaks up the crystallinity, like copolymerizing ethylene and 1-butene to get flexible linear-low-density-polyethylene, instead of stiff high density polyethylene). Some other favorites missing include ethylene/propylene rubber (common o-ring elastomer) and butyl rubber (used in glove-box gloves and an air tight liner in most vehicle tires, usually a copolymer of isobutylene with a hint of isoprene or chloroprene so that it can be crosslinked - made via cationic polymerization at low temperature). Story time: during some early research with new homogeneous olefin polymerization catalysts, we found that we could copolymerize ethylene and styrene (the old heterogeneous polyethylene catalysts had essentially zero uptake of styrene). With low styrene content, the ethylene/styrene copolymers were much like linear low density polyethylene. At higher styrene levels the copolymers became elastomeric, like EP rubber, and at even higher styrene levels (not quite 50 mol%) the glass transition temperature was near 30C, meaning that at room temperature the polymer was glassy and stiff, but warmed in the hand became rubbery and flexible. We sampled some of this stuff to Mattel (think Barbie dolls), who came back and said they wanted 100,000 tons yesterday. We built a 50,000 ton per annum demonstration plant. At the same time, our marketing department got together with the lawyers and determined that we were not getting good value for our research spending by just building plants and selling polymers. Their solution was a "new paradigm in marketing", where we would provide developmental quantities of new polymers for free in exchange for intellectual property rights to any discoveries that the polymer processors made. This proposal went over like a neutronium balloon, no polymer processor would touch our material, the new plant was shut down. So, thanks to this "new paradigm in marketing", instead of introducing a new polymer and getting 100% of a small (for us), but very profitable market, we had to scrap a brand new, $20,000,000 plant.
Polycarbonate keeps our eyes safe PTFE keeps our stuff from leaking (most of the time) HDPE stores our chemicals (most of then) and PVC makes our tubing (atleast vinyl tubing) all S tier for me
I was originally a synthetic organic chemist but switched to synthetic polymer chemistry after grad school. Early in my career, I worked with engineering polymers similar to PEEK and others. Synthesis of high temperature crystalline polymers, like PEEK, takes unique reaction chemistry to be able to generate high molecular weight polymers. Processing is also a challenge because one must use temperatures about 400C to have adequate flow properties for molding or extrusion. One of the polymers I developed was prepared by polymerization of decafluorobiphenyl and 9,9-bis(4-hydroxyphenyl)fluorene. It demonstrated a low dielectric constant and low moisture absorption and was considered for use as a coating in microchips. Another polymer to consider for your list is polyacryamide. It's primary use is in water treatment, but it does have the very important niche application of DNA sequencing. Later in my career, I helped to develop the use of polyacrylamide for doing genetic sequencing by capillary electrophoresis (Sanger Sequencing). Polyacrylamide is still used in first generation Sanger sequencing and fragment analysis. Most crime labs still use Sanger sequencing because of its high accuracy in the analysis of DNA samples. You'd be amazed how much they charge for a 25mL bottle of polyacrylamide solution used in DNA sequencing!
I loved the this. The flood of emotions I got remembering these games actually brought me to tears. The games are among my most favorite, and your video truly met the bar. The project Aces teams would certainly appreciate the craftsmanship you put into cover their works.
And let us not forget to give tribute to the orange to brown polymers that often accompany our reactions in high yield. (Like Nile Red's dioxane synth with acid polymerized acetaldehyde.)
I am literally held together with proteins. I also have some sort of Jacquard loom process going on with DNA. Best polymers ever, would carry on using everyday.
I didn’t see Poly(Isoprene) maybe I missed it, PAN is used to make Carbon fiber and is quite a useful textile .I really enjoy your tier lists. Keep them coming
Such a broad topic. You did a nice job, though barely even touching the surface of types and applications of even common polymers. (not my field, but in my engineering practice, maybe 25% is materials properties and applications outside my nominal specialty) No nitpics from me, but I'll note a few fun things: The most bowel-shaking application for PEG is your bowels. It is the irrigant used prior to colonoscopy. Good note that PTFE pipe "sealant" is primarily a friction modifier to allow proper tightening, though it does also serve as a packing for the helical path at the thread crests and roots. PTFE is also a fantastic dielectric material, with low bulk leakage, low dielectric constant, and a surface that doesn't attract contaminants or moisture. It does have a tendency to cold-flow (creep). PVC could get an entire video on its own...
I can already say I'm an HDPE fan. Polycarbonate is cool-ass too. A small layer can take a direct shotgun blast. Kevlar the same, I have some Kevlar gloves and they are extrmely cool. Damn, polymers are cool.
@@mastershooter64 yes there is. It is commonly called thermoplastic, idk the scientific name. It has a lot better propperties than Kevlar. Kevlar helmet will stop .44 magnum revolver round max, while the same amount of thermoplastic will stop 7.62 NATO, which is a DMR round. The hit would still give you a concussion tho. But yeah, it is more bulletproof
@@1brytol that's a terrible name. thermoplastic literally just means a plastic that can melt before it decomposes. it could be almost anything, although I wouldn't be suprised if it was just polycarbonate
@@Gameboygenius Also, post-annealing irradiated UHMWPE, that stuff is fairly solvent-swelling-resistant (compared to HDPE, which is already really resistant), and exhibits exceedingly low friction/wear. Sadly only moldable sinter-style, as it's too viscous to sqeeze into shape without shear fracture. It compares to (paraffin) candle wax like that wax does to ocatne....
This was a great video! Some of these polymers were new to me, but I was hoping to see some more common polymer varieties though. I think this tier list could've used poly(vinyl chloride), poly(styrene), and DNA.
silicone copolymers are everywhere....inks, coatings, cosmetics, cleaners, electronics, cook ware, shoes, tissue paper, foam of any kind...it goes on and on!
PVA is a very common glue. It easily cross links in the presence of boric oxide or borax forming… slime! These should definitely earn it a higher place.
Polyether ether ketone, peek, is an astonishingly strong 3D printer filament. Pieces made of it can reliably replace aluminium parts for a short while in a pinch.
Nice video. As a chemist, PEG is an interesting polymer for hydrogels,emulsions, and biomedical applications, etc. I made thermorespesponsive polymers with PLLA, PCL and PEG 2k (UCST 30-40°C LCST 50-65°C), but as a farmer and a veterinarian's son; nylon ropes are S tier also PGA and PCL sutures.
As a PhD working on polyolefins, Polyethylene and Propylene ranking just made my day. Laughed at the fact that Polisobutylene couldn't make the cut for the video.😂
As a bird owner, PTFE ain’t my thing because if a pan with it gets too hot it pyrolyses and poses a legitimate risk to the health of my pet (because they’re weak and delicate little air quality detectors)
Kuraray a Japanese plastic's manufacturer has a plant inside the DuPont Washington Works outside of Parkersburg, WV and they produce the Polyvinyl Butyral for windshields. One of the key ingredients is Butyraldehyde and when I sprayed the plant for weed control I had to spray around the tank dikes. I typically never went inside the dikes as I could reach everything from the top of the stairs. Just too nervous being inside a tank dike next to several thousand gallons of flammable material.
I was going to rate this video entirely on how you ranked proteins. Had the downvote primed and ready... but of course I didn't have to use it ;) bonus points for putting cellulose up there too. it's rare to find a non-bio-chemist who's decent to biologists/biochemists. as for PET, i'm a little surprised it got S tier as it's one of the worst offenders for microplastics-- i highly highly HIGHLY recommend you check out furandicarboxylic acid polymers as replacement for terephthalates, as they are both equally sturdy short-term AND biodegradable long term. Not to mention, can be manufactured from bran! only catch is the dehydration step of synthesis tends to have issues requiring aqueous solution :( although this was suggested as a use for bmim ionic liquids outside the research lab, and I personally see it going far! great content as always, friend! i'm surprised how you manage to keep coming up with these but they've been consistently entertaining. keep up the good work, and have a great day!
PET is also the most recycled easily recycled plastic. I think the reason it ends up in nature is because it's so widely used, especially in "portable items" such as plastic bottles. Having a deposit on plastic bottles helps to make most of them recycled in Norway. The deposit here is around 10% of the price of the soda. PEF sounds like a cool polymer though. Hope they can get it to work.
@That_Chemist I haven't been able to see anyone doing a Tierlist on how "green" or not polymers are, and I mean like the main production processes, major precursors, byproducts, lifespan, and shedding potential/hazard. Even a foggy view might be useful. Especially since many are trying to balance safety, durability, with now the environmental impact, when selecting and designing things made of polymers. Also might be good to include Flourosilicone, and FKM/FFKM, which are seeing increasing industrial use.
11:54 PVDF is also used in protein science, for Western blot membranes. Proteins stick to it, so I think it should gain a tier for hanging out with such a cool polymer.
polyacrylonitrile is also used for clothing, where it's usually just labeled as "acrylic" on care labels. by US standards, a polymer fiber must be at least 85% acrylonitrile to be labeled as "acrylic"
Spandex: "B" for Big Butts, Polybutadiene: "B" because it loves BuLi, Nomex = A because it has saved my ass, Nylon = C because I made cash off of it, PDMS = B for Boobs, PET F for films, PEG =A for antifreeze, damn useful stuff, PTFE = S for being the shittyist flat gasket on the planet, PVA = G for goo, PVDF = A, it can be the answer in tough corrosion problems, Saran=F for the Fugs song, look it up, NC=B for boom, I did a lengthy project on poly n-vinylpyrrolidone to make a low VOC hairspray, I also did some work with BPA. The polycarbonate people compete head to head with PS applications - it was fun to here them shit talk the competition, fun fact - BPA manufacture includes reactive distillation, a very cool process. Great list - all my old friends on one list.
Polybenzimidazole is a really interesting but not well known polymer. It’s usable up to an over 800F, is machinable but low thermal conductivity. Most of the ceramics that are machinable are high thermal conductivity, so it fits a capability gap. A fibrous version is also now being used for firefighter protection and tolerates even higher temperatures than nomex and Kevlar. It’s special superpower is resisting atomic oxygen in water supports for reactive ion etching in semiconductor fabs. It’s expensive, like $20 per cubic inch in part due to the difficulty in making it into shapes. PAN as used in carbon fiber, is first carbonized and then converted to graphite…it’s only used as a precursor.
PAN needs to be rated alot higher imo, as many lab gloves are made from a copolymere of PAN and butadiene. In my school lab these were standard but also if ur allergic to latex or can't work with latex in some situations, these are prette cool
Nitrocelulose needs to go higher. Its Ether solution is used as liquid bandage (Novikov solution) - The green shit that is used to cover scars and surface wounds. Works pretty well. I once lost a nail on my finger and thanks to this coating i was able to use my leg without long healing. Basically doc coated my nail bed with this and i was able to put sock back on and put my shoe on to walk home. Yeah it wasnt like SUPER comfy but it didnt hurt as this film sticks pretty good and protects the wound from any bacteria and contact.
Nomex is definitely S tier. The stuff is freaking magic. Kevlar is impressive, but Nomex is magic. And, good gosh, nitrocellulose is like the second plastic I think? Certainly one of the very earliest, along with bakelite and rayon, which is related as I recall. The raw form **is** guncotton. That's all gun cotton is. In addition, it's the ancestor of smokeless powders of all sorts. However it's also celluloid, once washed, kneaded, and polished smooth. That was used to make just about anything,: fountain pens, combs, poker chips, piano keys, billiard balls, you name it. It was also used for movie film, which is why projectionists had to be licensed by the state. Old movie projectors had an carbon arc about an inch away from the film, connected to several more pounds on the reels.
have people found ways to synthesize (a relatively large quantity) of 3D polymers? like not just a chain of repeating units but like a 3D matrix of repeating units of organic compounds. Does that even count as a polymer?
I'm not sure if that's exactly what you want, but cross-linking of polymers is a very common practice, for example for hardening dental implants. You take a polymer and put the cross-linking reagent and some initiator in it, and multiple polymer molecules will be bridged by the cross-linking-monomer.
It's called crosslinking. Actually, most if not all polymer strands form 3d crystalline structures and their propensity to form these structures determines it's glass transition (tg) temperature. At Temps lower than the tg of the polymer, the plastic becomes brittle and cracks easily. The crystallization can also be controlled by heat treatment when the plastic is made, I.e. thermoset vs thermoform plastics, or the addition of plasticizers (kind of like a "solvent" that prevents crystallization to some extent) .
Having worked with PEG in biochemistry, it is a wonderous polymer. You can stick it on micelles and in my case Single Chain Polymeric Nanoparticles and make them more or less invisible to your body's immume system
Paraformaldehyde (known as acetal by engineers) is actually super common and useful! It’s basically used comparably to nylon where precision and dimensional stability are needed Edit: Actually they’re different, but only by molecular weight
14:48 I dont know if this is just a weird thing we do in Spain, but we commonly use a solution of iodine and povidone to disinfect all sorts of injuries, not only for cows. It is usually refered to as "betadine". As I said, I dont know if its something common or if it is just something that nobody does.
For my master's I did a fair bit of research concerning polystyrene sulfonates / polyacrylates. Which are used as very interesting water soluble (n < 1000) water softening polymer, which you can sometimes find on your local detergent bottle. For my bachelors I ran into a lot of PEG (once again low n) which gets used to dehydrate natural gas. (spoiler: PEG is a horrible dehydrating chemical, shit gets oxidated super fast, but I guess that's better than oxidating your Natural Gas) I've found that polymers are far less interesting when you look at the plastics side of things, (turns into material science not much chemistry) and way more interesting when you look at them as specialist additives for specific processes. These polymers are generally a lot more expensive and derivated for some specific purpose though.
i remember a while back i had some dental work done and they used some PMMA, but they accidentally got a little bit of it onto my lip before it was cured and the moment it hit my lip there was an instant burning feeling, like not hot but chemical burning, it felt just like when i accidentally got like a drop or two of NaOH solution on the base of my hand. well after that there was a scar on my lip from a chem burn for a while.
Just a comment from my lab years: Teflon tape is great for Pipe fittings, but it should never be used for cylinder connections. The mechanism used in cylinder valves and fittings is a metal seat and a jam nut. Teflon on the threads gets in the way of producing a good jam seal. I cannot tell you how many grad students have been instructed incorrectly by full boat tenured professors - "Always use teflon tape." Uh,. NO. Not on the cylinder side, and not on "B" fittings on the low pressure side of the regulator. Pipe threads only - tapered threads where metal is screwed into corresponding tapered metal fittings. Just FWIW.
I gotta disagree with you on the paraformaldehyde. Sometimes, we dont want to make tissue fixatives with any methanol that usually comes in commercialy available concentrated 37% formalin. Having access to this is important for in vitro diagnostics. We can also make dry formalin kits that end users mix up, which gets around all sorts of regulations that might prevent certain customers from ordering liquid formulations. I will agree that it doesnt have any consumer-grade applications, but it is not completely useless.
as a pharmacist id say PEG is definitely S tier. you wouldnt believe how many application PEG has in that field, it is insane. its almost anywhere! it is used as a laxative, as a bulk ingredient in "tropical" suppositories, as a surfactant, as a hydrophilic lubricant in tablets and capsules, in cremes and ointments and many more. During my studies im really getting tired of seeing this. It seems to excel in nearly everything here!
You totally undersold nylon, it's not just in clothing, it's really common anywhere you need a rigid plastic. For instance, power tools are commonly made out of PA6,6 GF30, which is nylon 6,6 glass fiber reinforced, 30%. You can also 3d print with it
Polycaprolactone is neat: at room temperature it's similar to Nylon 6 (Polycaprolactam) but it melts at 60͏°C making it possible to mold by hand without burning yourself. Useful for things like prototyping and quick repairs whenever its obvious lack of high-temperature resistance isn't a problem.
Also for being able to use PLA and similar cheap 3D printer materials to create compression molds (compression molding is like half-way between forging and injection molding: you have to manually insert a blank, but the shape is about as free as injection molding (technically even more free); a waffle iron is just a compression molding device for an edible thermoset resin).
We are constantly told that plastics must NEVER be mixed when melted down for recycling ... low end products ( such as plastic lumber for decking / garden furniture etc .. ) are not too fussy about purity / dirt inclusions ..... it would make a good video if you could suggest which plastics mix OK , ( and those that would never be good to mix , or would not mix ! ) .... this would be a great help to the recycling industry , struggling to reduce the waste mountains .... ( maybe a good research project , funded by industry ? ? ) ................
A little disappointed there were no conductive polymers. E.g. p-polyphenylene-sulfide. Or the ion conductor Nafion. EDIT: PPS is not a conductor, but an isolator, but it can be doted to be a semiconductor. I misremembered that.
Fun fact about Polyethylene Glycol: it's used for laxatives! 3350-unit PEG is one of the most common water-soluble laxatives, and it has the advantages of not doing things other laxative medications do like side effects. For that reason I would have put it in D for dookie.
Cellulose ether polymers are fun as they dissolve in water to form a slippery "slime". This means they are often used as lubricants and thickeners in all kinds of things. If you grew up in the 80's or 90's you might have seen it used on TV a fair bit!
my god the mouth pipetter guy
a true human pipete
The Pied Pipetter
Is a bong a mouth pipette for the mind? Asking for a friend
@@HiwasseeRiver Ig?
Marie Curie had pipetted Radium solutions. Her deceased body glowed in the dark.
@@HiwasseeRiver now, we are asking the real questions.
i like how the nitrogens in nitrocellulose are spelling out "NO, NO, ONO" as if the chemical has gained a brief awareness of itself
☠️
Might I suggest a tier list of cursed polymers? Substances such as polythiazyl and polyacetylene would be perfect for this! Not only are they unusually structured, but they are also electrically conductive.
I'm sorry electrically what now? Polymers??? Electrically conductive????? How???????? You've got to be kidding me.
@@nanocodethespectator2646 It’s really interesting actually, considering most polymers have super low conductivity! Polyacetylene on its own is not very conductive at all, but you can put a mobile positive or negative charge on some of the acetylenes by passing it past something like a metal catalyst and stretch it out to make the fibers go the same way, which gives it a conductivity of roughly a tenth of regular wire! Polymers can get pretty interesting for sure.
@@broiled_lemming4533 That sounds interesting for sure!
@Nanocode The Spectator polymer science has gotten quite far in designing new polymers with unique properties
Nylon absolutely has to be higher. Solid nylons are fantastic for enclosures, boxes, casings for power tools, toys, prototyping, and on and on. It's rigid compared to ABS for example and forms excellent composites with carbon fiber, glass fiber, etc. Strong stuff and it's really quite common
Agree! A LOT of mechanical parts are nylon
Should have listed some of the longer chain nylons too. PA-12 is big in industrial 3d printing.
I was gunna say this. Nylon is GOAT tier material. That stuff is so unimaginably tough.
My favorite polymer is Polyoxymethylene. Sort of cousin of a Paraformaldehyde, that didn't do crack, went for college, was financially responsible and turn into an upstanding person.
It's really nice to build mechanical things from, like cogs and gears, as it is fairly durable. It also have low friction when rubbed against itself. Also also, it is biologically neutral, for a lot of polymer medical stuff if it is not made out of PVDF - it's likely made out of POM.
I thought I liked the stuff until I worked with it and made a cloud of formaldehyde 💀
As a student looking to get into material science, it's currently my favourite polymer alongside PTFE due to it's physical properties, though my opinion is basically as useful as looking at an expensive handbag through a glass window.
Oh no no no. You keep that shitty plastic away from me. Having worked with it in injection molding it is not fun to work with. Worst part is its gas. Burns your eyes, throat and nose if concentrated because someone left a barrel full sit there at temp for 10 minutes.
As a polymer chemist, this list made me laugh several times.
:D
Me too, me too. It's amazing that, as a practising polymer chemist, I haven't been within a light year of most of this list. 😀
Same 😁
As a polymer chemist I will have the full responsibility for my work for you to use your work to get the information I needed in order with your help and advice.
Is this list non-extensive, or what are you saying?
Talking about micropipettes. I’ve recently looked a bit into the history and before our modern mechanical micropipette, people used drawn glass capillaries that had calibrated markings on them to transfer specific volumes. You needed to make and calibrate these pipettes for each volume and given how fragile they are you often had to make new ones… The first modern mechanical piston-driven micropipette was the Eppendorf Marburg that was made 60 years ago. So, happy to live in the age of convenience…
Yes and no, Heinrich Schnitger who invented the micropipette worked at the University of Marburg hence the name of the first pipette. The Marburg virus escaped from lab animals held in a pharma company in the same city. So, yes named after the same city but from a different institution.
Polysulfone is also used to make ultrafiltration materials, usually for the
cool!
How can you rate paraformaldehyde that lowly when it's structurally equivalent to polyoxymethylene? POM is a super useful polymer for injection molding. Probably every chemist has worked with Keck joint clips in his life which are typically made from POM. Additionally, POM was instrumental for Staudinger to validate his theory of macromolecules.
Paraformaldehyde is doing crack and kidnapping babies, while it's brother Polyoxymethylene is running non-profit charity and cures cancer.
And yeah, POM is my favorite. Such a nice plastic for mechanical applications - strong, low friction, easy to work with.
@@JoshStLouis314 the metal ones don't like nitrogen oxides or nitric acid either. I generally accept that at least one is going to die if I'm distilling nitric acid.
Had an interesting experience working with PEEK recently. I work in material testing, a little while ago we were hired to provide a report of conformance to a MIL-spec for a number of polymers from various suppliers that the client was using to manufacture something for the military. Most of the work related to this was composition analysis to determine halogen content, and handled by our chemistry department, but specifically for the PEEK (required because the client had never used this material conforming to this standard before) we had to do "exudation testing". In summary exudation testing is compressing a sample of some polymer/elastomeric compound under a certain load for a certain time period and seeing if any liquid "exudate" comes out... we were trying to juice plastic. This makes some sense for soft rubbers or other materials that may be porous, etc. but PEEK is close to as hard as plastic gets and is roughly half as strong as mild steel. No surprise, it did not juice.
If you think trying in vain to juice plastic is worse than licking rocks, please comment down below.
PEEK is an amazing polymer, and it can under certain circumstance break steel parts in injection moulding machines.
Like that one time where a co-apprentice of mine left it in the cylinder for 48hrs, moisture got in and on monday I just hear a very loud PONG from a machine on the other side of the workshop. The screw broke and the machine moved a good few centimetres.
PEEK is incredibly common in UHPLC, and IC, both as general tubing, but also for applications where you need an inert surface.
I use PEEK all the time in modded minecraft
I dunno, man. It smells of simple time. Watching sample crystallise. Or paint dry. Dust settle.
Skin age.
Everyone die.
A tier list on chemical resistant materials would be very useful
PFTE would be S tier.
Nylon, PA 6 and PA66 reinforced with glass fibers are pretty common used for sturdy casing and holders. It's really common in automobiles
At work we make even shaft parts of rifles with it
Peek awesome. Its tolerance to organic solvents is just so much better than many other polymers. Background: We are using peek 3d printed Microfluifics reactors and require high temperatures and harsh solvents.
Fun fact, All marching snare drum heads are made out of Kevlar! Quad heads out of nylon.. They make fantastic sounds. Going through, I'm always thinking if the material might work as a drum head :) The hard plastics nah, but I would be curious about that synthetic rubber for example..
PEEK's most interesting application is as a matrix for fibre composites really. Performance is competitive with resins without the brittleness.
PEGs are awesome for protein crystallization. I think most structural biology labs collect PEGs with various molecular weights to crystalize target protein.
Feel a bit left out, since I mainly work with lignin. Definitely S tier in terms of potential, F tier when you have to work with it. Great video!
Thanks!
What's the old joke? You can make anything from lignin, except money.
PVDF is S tier because its a piezoelectric polymer used for flexible transducers and similar. Imagine a fan which acts like a fish tail or a flexible microphone or speaker that can be put anywhere.
I'd move Nylon (both of them up). Besides fibers it is also used as an engineering resin - most plastic gears and parts are made from Nylon due to its toughness and other properties. I would also move polyvinyl butyral up. It is not a coating on car windshields, it is a layer between two glass sheets that form the windshield and is what makes auto safety glass safe.
As a machinist the lack of mention of acetal plastics (Delrin, pretty much the go-to plastic for an easy to machine material that ticks off a lot of moderate engineering requirements, ie; moderate strength, moderate light stability, moderate chemical resistance, moderate price), and the low score of PEEK, which is basically the super material of mechanical/structural plastic applications. It's viewed like the titanium of plastic.
Delrin is great for longboard slide gloves, it's like butter on the pavement
IMO the two Nylons should go in 'A' Tier. Also, you didn't include another 'S' Tier polymer - polyvinyl chloride. Still, it's a great video I enjoy these
Not a chemist, so I'm curious
Is polyvinyl chloride the good ol pvc?
@@jpardoa94 Yep. The other other plastic used everywhere in your house. It doesn't like UV light, but it basically doesn't burn.
@@jpardoa94 yes, it is.
@@geekswithfeet9137 Huh? Most homes are plumbed with it (in the USA anyway)
@@laz272727 but when it does burn, it releases chlorine gas..
Having worked in manufacturing, I can say that they're a pain. They're incredibly messy to cut, way too soft to grip (you'll leave marks and/or completely deform it if you clamp it even slightly too hard), and for SOME REASON it can actually wear down carbide cutting inserts.
One of my coworkers told me a story of how some parts they were making out of Teflon at a previous job expanded thermally so much during the manufacturing process they needed to let the compled part sit in the temperature-controlled inspection lab for a few hours before actually being inspected because it would shrink to be within the (not particularly tight) tolerances.
Had to turn Teflon on a lathe once. Can confirm.
PTFE is also used as a binder for solid propellants. It’s used in ramjets where boron is used as a fuel (you need the fluorine to really get the boron to burn), and for some pulsed plasma thrusters
As a rouge biologist I'll mention that while the common biologist's definition of life is one that requires a organism made up of cell(s), bilayer membranes enclosing a watery interior with a DNA genome that encodes instructions for proteins that are read as mRNAs by ribosomes, there are life...ish things made up of single molecules of nucleic acid or amino acid polymers. These can't exist without hijacking the components of cellular life though, hence them being only lifeish. Though they might resemble some of the precursor molecules that eventually turned into life.
There are a number of virus like things called viroids that as far as we know only infect flowering plants and are composed of only a single circular ribonucleic acid polymer (though most of its bases end up pairing).
There are also prions which are folding variants of proteins that are able to cause the healthy form of the protein to switch to the prion form. Thus they are essentially the protein equivalent of a zombie. Which is appropriate because in animals they tend to exist as neural proteins and thus infection results in a terrifying array of symptoms.
Before I mention the symptoms though I'll mention an interesting property. Multiple prion foldings of the same protein exist and each only creates itself. If you have a solution of a prion forming protein, certain prion disease are heritable, if you leave it for weeks it will eventually all turn into one random prion form. However if you "infect" the solution with a strain from a patient the entire solution will turn to that form within hours. And if you infect it from a patient with a different form the same will occur.
As to the symptoms after you're infected you're healthy for years or even decades, again an appropriately zombie like latent period, until your brain slowly turns into a sponge and over the course of a year or two as you get dementia, become paranoid, go insane, become unable to control your movements, maybe go blind, and then die. There are no treatments.
Oh and to continue to be zombie like they're nearly impossible to destroy, normal cooking temperatures do nothing, proteases don't degrade them, and they're chemically resistant so they can persist in the environment for years. One of the WHO recommendations for sterilizing contaminated surgical equipment is to immerse it in a sodium hydroxide solution and then autoclave it in that same solution for half an hour, wash it, and then run it through another standard sterilization procedure.
Fun video follow-up idea: rate all the “hey, you left this out” polymers in the comments against the ones in S tier.
My suggestion is polybenzimidazole. It’s pretty much synthetic asbestos in that it won’t melt, won’t catch fire and remains serviceable at extremely high temperatures. This is what firefighter turnout gear is made from; NASCAR driving uniforms are Nomex.
I would love to see a video that breaks down how the shape of a molecule, such as Sodium Polyacrylate, is able to interact with H2O to pull and hold it. Understanding how the two interact at a technical level is nice... but visualizing what is actually happening at the chemical level would be fascinating!
One very large volume polymer you missed (besides PVC) is styrene/butadiene rubber, which is the main ingredient in vehicle tires.
Polyethylene comes in a number of variants, such as high density polyethylene (essentially pure polyethylene, which is fairly stiff and brittle), linear low density polyethylene (copolymers with 1-butene or 1-octene, which are flexible and tough) and ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene (extreme tensile strength), which are all made using transition metal catalysts. And then there is low density polyethylene (which has high melt strength and is used in blown films), which is made via free-radical polymerization under super-critical conditions.
Commercial polypropylene is almost all isotactic polypropylene, with some atactic polypropylene (used mostly as a sealant, although it was the original glue for post-it notes, now replaced with low molecular weight polyacrylates). I've made syndiotactic polypropylene, but I don't think that has ever been commercialized.
Saran (old) was actually a copolymer of vinylidene chloride with a few percent of vinylchloride (the pure polymers are highly crystalline, meaning they are stiff and somewhat brittle, adding a little VC to VDC breaks up the crystallinity, like copolymerizing ethylene and 1-butene to get flexible linear-low-density-polyethylene, instead of stiff high density polyethylene).
Some other favorites missing include ethylene/propylene rubber (common o-ring elastomer) and butyl rubber (used in glove-box gloves and an air tight liner in most vehicle tires, usually a copolymer of isobutylene with a hint of isoprene or chloroprene so that it can be crosslinked - made via cationic polymerization at low temperature).
Story time: during some early research with new homogeneous olefin polymerization catalysts, we found that we could copolymerize ethylene and styrene (the old heterogeneous polyethylene catalysts had essentially zero uptake of styrene). With low styrene content, the ethylene/styrene copolymers were much like linear low density polyethylene. At higher styrene levels the copolymers became elastomeric, like EP rubber, and at even higher styrene levels (not quite 50 mol%) the glass transition temperature was near 30C, meaning that at room temperature the polymer was glassy and stiff, but warmed in the hand became rubbery and flexible. We sampled some of this stuff to Mattel (think Barbie dolls), who came back and said they wanted 100,000 tons yesterday. We built a 50,000 ton per annum demonstration plant. At the same time, our marketing department got together with the lawyers and determined that we were not getting good value for our research spending by just building plants and selling polymers. Their solution was a "new paradigm in marketing", where we would provide developmental quantities of new polymers for free in exchange for intellectual property rights to any discoveries that the polymer processors made. This proposal went over like a neutronium balloon, no polymer processor would touch our material, the new plant was shut down. So, thanks to this "new paradigm in marketing", instead of introducing a new polymer and getting 100% of a small (for us), but very profitable market, we had to scrap a brand new, $20,000,000 plant.
it's always marketing and management that's getting in the way of good science
This list is already big, but It's missing ABS and POM; both WIDLEY used in industrial manufacturing
Yeah
Polysulfone was used in capacitor film for temperature rated capacitors.
Polycarbonate keeps our eyes safe
PTFE keeps our stuff from leaking (most of the time)
HDPE stores our chemicals (most of then)
and PVC makes our tubing (atleast vinyl tubing)
all S tier for me
I was originally a synthetic organic chemist but switched to synthetic polymer chemistry after grad school. Early in my career, I worked with engineering polymers similar to PEEK and others. Synthesis of high temperature crystalline polymers, like PEEK, takes unique reaction chemistry to be able to generate high molecular weight polymers. Processing is also a challenge because one must use temperatures about 400C to have adequate flow properties for molding or extrusion. One of the polymers I developed was prepared by polymerization of decafluorobiphenyl and 9,9-bis(4-hydroxyphenyl)fluorene. It demonstrated a low dielectric constant and low moisture absorption and was considered for use as a coating in microchips.
Another polymer to consider for your list is polyacryamide. It's primary use is in water treatment, but it does have the very important niche application of DNA sequencing. Later in my career, I helped to develop the use of polyacrylamide for doing genetic sequencing by capillary electrophoresis (Sanger Sequencing). Polyacrylamide is still used in first generation Sanger sequencing and fragment analysis. Most crime labs still use Sanger sequencing because of its high accuracy in the analysis of DNA samples. You'd be amazed how much they charge for a 25mL bottle of polyacrylamide solution used in DNA sequencing!
I loved the this. The flood of emotions I got remembering these games actually brought me to tears. The games are among my most favorite, and your video truly met the bar.
The project Aces teams would certainly appreciate the craftsmanship you put into cover their works.
And let us not forget to give tribute to the orange to brown polymers that often accompany our reactions in high yield. (Like Nile Red's dioxane synth with acid polymerized acetaldehyde.)
I am literally held together with proteins. I also have some sort of Jacquard loom process going on with DNA. Best polymers ever, would carry on using everyday.
PVC is an S tier material until you're tasked with disposing of it
I didn’t see Poly(Isoprene) maybe I missed it, PAN is used to make Carbon fiber and is quite a useful textile .I really enjoy your tier lists. Keep them coming
I work with PEEK regularly, in a non-scientific setting as a plastics production operator. its really expensive compared to other materials
Such a broad topic. You did a nice job, though barely even touching the surface of types and applications of even common polymers. (not my field, but in my engineering practice, maybe 25% is materials properties and applications outside my nominal specialty) No nitpics from me, but I'll note a few fun things: The most bowel-shaking application for PEG is your bowels. It is the irrigant used prior to colonoscopy. Good note that PTFE pipe "sealant" is primarily a friction modifier to allow proper tightening, though it does also serve as a packing for the helical path at the thread crests and roots. PTFE is also a fantastic dielectric material, with low bulk leakage, low dielectric constant, and a surface that doesn't attract contaminants or moisture. It does have a tendency to cold-flow (creep). PVC could get an entire video on its own...
PTFE is actually incredibly soft! Sheets of it can almost feel like you’re dealing with a stiff elastomer.
I can already say I'm an HDPE fan. Polycarbonate is cool-ass too. A small layer can take a direct shotgun blast. Kevlar the same, I have some Kevlar gloves and they are extrmely cool. Damn, polymers are cool.
is there a polymer that's more bullet resistant that even polycarbonate and kevlar?
@@mastershooter64 yes there is. It is commonly called thermoplastic, idk the scientific name. It has a lot better propperties than Kevlar. Kevlar helmet will stop .44 magnum revolver round max, while the same amount of thermoplastic will stop 7.62 NATO, which is a DMR round. The hit would still give you a concussion tho. But yeah, it is more bulletproof
If you like LDPE and HDPE, you will love the third entry to the trilogy, PEX. It's like HDPE but irradiated to make it cross link.
@@1brytol that's a terrible name. thermoplastic literally just means a plastic that can melt before it decomposes. it could be almost anything, although I wouldn't be suprised if it was just polycarbonate
@@Gameboygenius Also, post-annealing irradiated UHMWPE, that stuff is fairly solvent-swelling-resistant (compared to HDPE, which is already really resistant), and exhibits exceedingly low friction/wear. Sadly only moldable sinter-style, as it's too viscous to sqeeze into shape without shear fracture. It compares to (paraffin) candle wax like that wax does to ocatne....
I adore the fact that PTFE makes non-stick cookware and (with Viton and magnesium) it makes rocket fuel.
This was a great video! Some of these polymers were new to me, but I was hoping to see some more common polymer varieties though. I think this tier list could've used poly(vinyl chloride), poly(styrene), and DNA.
Polystyrene was there and I accidentally deleted pvc
Ah! I was looking for the phenyl ring skeleton but it was instead abbreviated to Ph, my bad!
silicone copolymers are everywhere....inks, coatings, cosmetics, cleaners, electronics, cook ware, shoes, tissue paper, foam of any kind...it goes on and on!
PVA is a very common glue. It easily cross links in the presence of boric oxide or borax forming… slime!
These should definitely earn it a higher place.
PEG is used for colonoscopy prep, though it's getting less common I think . Definitely F tier based on how unpleasant that experience is!
Now, this tier list really did hurt me as a polymer chemist. Sorry.
Polyether ether ketone, peek, is an astonishingly strong 3D printer filament. Pieces made of it can reliably replace aluminium parts for a short while in a pinch.
Oh cool!
And extremely expensive
Naming a Polymer: 😎
Drawing a Branching Polymer: 💀
Nice video.
As a chemist, PEG is an interesting polymer for hydrogels,emulsions, and biomedical applications, etc. I made thermorespesponsive polymers with PLLA, PCL and PEG 2k (UCST 30-40°C LCST 50-65°C), but as a farmer and a veterinarian's son; nylon ropes are S tier also PGA and PCL sutures.
As a PhD working on polyolefins, Polyethylene and Propylene ranking just made my day. Laughed at the fact that Polisobutylene couldn't make the cut for the video.😂
Any polymer-supported catalyst research paper ever
PEG : Did someone call
9:10
A stir bar and other lab equipment are made from PTFE.
As a bird owner, PTFE ain’t my thing because if a pan with it gets too hot it pyrolyses and poses a legitimate risk to the health of my pet (because they’re weak and delicate little air quality detectors)
Kuraray a Japanese plastic's manufacturer has a plant inside the DuPont Washington Works outside of Parkersburg, WV and they produce the Polyvinyl Butyral for windshields. One of the key ingredients is Butyraldehyde and when I sprayed the plant for weed control I had to spray around the tank dikes. I typically never went inside the dikes as I could reach everything from the top of the stairs. Just too nervous being inside a tank dike next to several thousand gallons of flammable material.
I was going to rate this video entirely on how you ranked proteins. Had the downvote primed and ready... but of course I didn't have to use it ;) bonus points for putting cellulose up there too. it's rare to find a non-bio-chemist who's decent to biologists/biochemists.
as for PET, i'm a little surprised it got S tier as it's one of the worst offenders for microplastics-- i highly highly HIGHLY recommend you check out furandicarboxylic acid polymers as replacement for terephthalates, as they are both equally sturdy short-term AND biodegradable long term. Not to mention, can be manufactured from bran! only catch is the dehydration step of synthesis tends to have issues requiring aqueous solution :( although this was suggested as a use for bmim ionic liquids outside the research lab, and I personally see it going far!
great content as always, friend! i'm surprised how you manage to keep coming up with these but they've been consistently entertaining. keep up the good work, and have a great day!
PET is also the most recycled easily recycled plastic. I think the reason it ends up in nature is because it's so widely used, especially in "portable items" such as plastic bottles.
Having a deposit on plastic bottles helps to make most of them recycled in Norway. The deposit here is around 10% of the price of the soda.
PEF sounds like a cool polymer though. Hope they can get it to work.
@@phizc damn, a country that provides benefits to its people for focusing on environmental issues? What kind of bizarre utopia do you live in?/s
I love his description of Spandex
@That_Chemist I haven't been able to see anyone doing a Tierlist on how "green" or not polymers are, and I mean like the main production processes, major precursors, byproducts, lifespan, and shedding potential/hazard. Even a foggy view might be useful. Especially since many are trying to balance safety, durability, with now the environmental impact, when selecting and designing things made of polymers. Also might be good to include Flourosilicone, and FKM/FFKM, which are seeing increasing industrial use.
11:54 PVDF is also used in protein science, for Western blot membranes. Proteins stick to it, so I think it should gain a tier for hanging out with such a cool polymer.
polyacrylonitrile is also used for clothing, where it's usually just labeled as "acrylic" on care labels. by US standards, a polymer fiber must be at least 85% acrylonitrile to be labeled as "acrylic"
8:48 Nah, no way. PTFE is S+ tier. You got some plastic rubbing against your plastic? PTFE lube.
Spandex: "B" for Big Butts, Polybutadiene: "B" because it loves BuLi, Nomex = A because it has saved my ass, Nylon = C because I made cash off of it, PDMS = B for Boobs, PET F for films, PEG =A for antifreeze, damn useful stuff, PTFE = S for being the shittyist flat gasket on the planet, PVA = G for goo, PVDF = A, it can be the answer in tough corrosion problems, Saran=F for the Fugs song, look it up, NC=B for boom, I did a lengthy project on poly n-vinylpyrrolidone to make a low VOC hairspray, I also did some work with BPA. The polycarbonate people compete head to head with PS applications - it was fun to here them shit talk the competition, fun fact - BPA manufacture includes reactive distillation, a very cool process. Great list - all my old friends on one list.
Always when the videos start my brain goes "Welcome back, Sethbling here"
Polybenzimidazole is a really interesting but not well known polymer. It’s usable up to an over 800F, is machinable but low thermal conductivity. Most of the ceramics that are machinable are high thermal conductivity, so it fits a capability gap. A fibrous version is also now being used for firefighter protection and tolerates even higher temperatures than nomex and Kevlar. It’s special superpower is resisting atomic oxygen in water supports for reactive ion etching in semiconductor fabs.
It’s expensive, like $20 per cubic inch in part due to the difficulty in making it into shapes.
PAN as used in carbon fiber, is first carbonized and then converted to graphite…it’s only used as a precursor.
PAN needs to be rated alot higher imo, as many lab gloves are made from a copolymere of PAN and butadiene. In my school lab these were standard but also if ur allergic to latex or can't work with latex in some situations, these are prette cool
Nitrocelulose needs to go higher. Its Ether solution is used as liquid bandage (Novikov solution) - The green shit that is used to cover scars and surface wounds. Works pretty well. I once lost a nail on my finger and thanks to this coating i was able to use my leg without long healing. Basically doc coated my nail bed with this and i was able to put sock back on and put my shoe on to walk home. Yeah it wasnt like SUPER comfy but it didnt hurt as this film sticks pretty good and protects the wound from any bacteria and contact.
Nomex is definitely S tier. The stuff is freaking magic. Kevlar is impressive, but Nomex is magic.
And, good gosh, nitrocellulose is like the second plastic I think? Certainly one of the very earliest, along with bakelite and rayon, which is related as I recall.
The raw form **is** guncotton. That's all gun cotton is. In addition, it's the ancestor of smokeless powders of all sorts. However it's also celluloid, once washed, kneaded, and polished smooth. That was used to make just about anything,: fountain pens, combs, poker chips, piano keys, billiard balls, you name it. It was also used for movie film, which is why projectionists had to be licensed by the state. Old movie projectors had an carbon arc about an inch away from the film, connected to several more pounds on the reels.
Nitrocellulose/celluloid was/is also used in ping pong balls. In 2014 they switched to some other material for tournament balls though. ABS?
PVC is also a polymer that's widely used in construction and protective equipment.
have people found ways to synthesize (a relatively large quantity) of 3D polymers? like not just a chain of repeating units but like a 3D matrix of repeating units of organic compounds. Does that even count as a polymer?
You could think of metal-organic frameworks as 3D polymers.
I'm not sure if that's exactly what you want, but cross-linking of polymers is a very common practice, for example for hardening dental implants.
You take a polymer and put the cross-linking reagent and some initiator in it, and multiple polymer molecules will be bridged by the cross-linking-monomer.
It's called crosslinking. Actually, most if not all polymer strands form 3d crystalline structures and their propensity to form these structures determines it's glass transition (tg) temperature. At Temps lower than the tg of the polymer, the plastic becomes brittle and cracks easily. The crystallization can also be controlled by heat treatment when the plastic is made, I.e. thermoset vs thermoform plastics, or the addition of plasticizers (kind of like a "solvent" that prevents crystallization to some extent) .
He actually mentions one of them as a co-component of one of the S tier polymers - lignin.
Big fan of PDMS for it's mechanical properties.
Peek is a useful material for pneumatic valve elements. Nearly as strong as aluminum, but half the weight. Easy to make fast acting valves.
Having worked with PEG in biochemistry, it is a wonderous polymer. You can stick it on micelles and in my case Single Chain Polymeric Nanoparticles and make them more or less invisible to your body's immume system
Paraformaldehyde (known as acetal by engineers) is actually super common and useful! It’s basically used comparably to nylon where precision and dimensional stability are needed
Edit: Actually they’re different, but only by molecular weight
14:48 I dont know if this is just a weird thing we do in Spain, but we commonly use a solution of iodine and povidone to disinfect all sorts of injuries, not only for cows. It is usually refered to as "betadine". As I said, I dont know if its something common or if it is just something that nobody does.
PVDF is often used for filters and stuff
"If you've ever sterilized a cow's udder..."
Can't say that I have, and now I feel like I am missing an essential experience in life...
For my master's I did a fair bit of research concerning polystyrene sulfonates / polyacrylates. Which are used as very interesting water soluble (n < 1000) water softening polymer, which you can sometimes find on your local detergent bottle.
For my bachelors I ran into a lot of PEG (once again low n) which gets used to dehydrate natural gas. (spoiler: PEG is a horrible dehydrating chemical, shit gets oxidated super fast, but I guess that's better than oxidating your Natural Gas)
I've found that polymers are far less interesting when you look at the plastics side of things, (turns into material science not much chemistry) and way more interesting when you look at them as specialist additives for specific processes. These polymers are generally a lot more expensive and derivated for some specific purpose though.
i remember a while back i had some dental work done and they used some PMMA, but they accidentally got a little bit of it onto my lip before it was cured and the moment it hit my lip there was an instant burning feeling, like not hot but chemical burning, it felt just like when i accidentally got like a drop or two of NaOH solution on the base of my hand. well after that there was a scar on my lip from a chem burn for a while.
11:22 just realized the bracket notation lol
Talked about the individual monomers of ABS but didn't put them all together.
This is the kind of video that will pop up in my recommended 7 years from now
awesome haha
Just a comment from my lab years: Teflon tape is great for Pipe fittings, but it should never be used for cylinder connections. The mechanism used in cylinder valves and fittings is a metal seat and a jam nut. Teflon on the threads gets in the way of producing a good jam seal. I cannot tell you how many grad students have been instructed incorrectly by full boat tenured professors - "Always use teflon tape." Uh,. NO. Not on the cylinder side, and not on "B" fittings on the low pressure side of the regulator. Pipe threads only - tapered threads where metal is screwed into corresponding tapered metal fittings. Just FWIW.
The insides of our test cells for solid state batteries are built with polyether ether ketone. But its damn expensive.
I love your videos and the effort you put in them you are truly a based person
Thank you so much!
"if you're wondering why I'm not talking about some of the properties of these polymers... Well it's outside the scope of this video... " Okey ._.
I gotta disagree with you on the paraformaldehyde. Sometimes, we dont want to make tissue fixatives with any methanol that usually comes in commercialy available concentrated 37% formalin. Having access to this is important for in vitro diagnostics. We can also make dry formalin kits that end users mix up, which gets around all sorts of regulations that might prevent certain customers from ordering liquid formulations.
I will agree that it doesnt have any consumer-grade applications, but it is not completely useless.
as a pharmacist id say PEG is definitely S tier. you wouldnt believe how many application PEG has in that field, it is insane. its almost anywhere! it is used as a laxative, as a bulk ingredient in "tropical" suppositories, as a surfactant, as a hydrophilic lubricant in tablets and capsules, in cremes and ointments and many more. During my studies im really getting tired of seeing this. It seems to excel in nearly everything here!
You totally undersold nylon, it's not just in clothing, it's really common anywhere you need a rigid plastic. For instance, power tools are commonly made out of PA6,6 GF30, which is nylon 6,6 glass fiber reinforced, 30%. You can also 3d print with it
I used to think carbonite and polycarbonate was the same stuff when I was a kid.
Nice and interresting video, as usual, my only disapointement was not to see polyaniline wich is the only one i made ^^
Polycaprolactone is neat: at room temperature it's similar to Nylon 6 (Polycaprolactam) but it melts at 60͏°C making it possible to mold by hand without burning yourself. Useful for things like prototyping and quick repairs whenever its obvious lack of high-temperature resistance isn't a problem.
Also for being able to use PLA and similar cheap 3D printer materials to create compression molds (compression molding is like half-way between forging and injection molding: you have to manually insert a blank, but the shape is about as free as injection molding (technically even more free); a waffle iron is just a compression molding device for an edible thermoset resin).
We are constantly told that plastics must NEVER be mixed when melted down for recycling ... low end products ( such as plastic lumber for decking / garden furniture etc .. ) are not too fussy about purity / dirt inclusions ..... it would make a good video if you could suggest which plastics mix OK , ( and those that would never be good to mix , or would not mix ! ) .... this would be a great help to the recycling industry , struggling to reduce the waste mountains .... ( maybe a good research project , funded by industry ? ? ) ................
I will say that paraformaldehyde is pretty convenient for use in adding methyl groups by reductive amination
Polyvinyl alcohol is also used as a mold release for other polymers
A little disappointed there were no conductive polymers. E.g. p-polyphenylene-sulfide. Or the ion conductor Nafion.
EDIT: PPS is not a conductor, but an isolator, but it can be doted to be a semiconductor. I misremembered that.
I would have included nafion but its a copolymer and hard to draw without filling up a lot of space :(
PTFE is the really high tensile string in dental floss.
Fun fact about Polyethylene Glycol: it's used for laxatives! 3350-unit PEG is one of the most common water-soluble laxatives, and it has the advantages of not doing things other laxative medications do like side effects. For that reason I would have put it in D for dookie.
ABS is still a common polymer, although it does yellow and get brittle over time
Poly ether ether ketone tubing is used ubiquitously in FPLCs, for protein chromatography.
How about the most environmentally friendly polymer based on depolymerization, degradation products etc?
Probably PLA
Cellulose ether polymers are fun as they dissolve in water to form a slippery "slime". This means they are often used as lubricants and thickeners in all kinds of things. If you grew up in the 80's or 90's you might have seen it used on TV a fair bit!