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Chemistry - Polymers
The polymer made from styrene is polystyrene.

Chemistry - Polymers

This Chemistry quiz is called 'Chemistry - Polymers' and it has been written by teachers to help you if you are studying the subject at high school. Playing educational quizzes is a user-friendly way to learn if you are in the 9th or 10th grade - aged 14 to 16.

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One of the topics covered in high school science is the chemistry of crude oils and of other fuels. This quiz focuses in particular on plastics - the polymers which are manufactured from crude oil.

Crude oil straight from the ground is not a particularly useful material but, after fractional distillation, it provides us with many different types of fuel. These fuels are all members of one large chemical family, the alkanes. But when some of the fractions of crude oil are 'cracked', a whole new world of chemistry opens up. The reason for this is that cracking produces a new family of chemicals, one which wasn't present in the oil to begin with. This new family of chemicals is the alkenes.

The alkenes are so useful because they are 'unsaturated'. That means that they contain at least one double bond between carbon atoms. This double bond means that they are more reactive than the alkanes and in different ways too. They can be made into aldehydes, alcohols and all manner of other chemicals but probably the best known and most useful in everyday life are the polymers.

Polymers take different forms. Cellulose is a natural polymer that is made by plants. This is not a polymer of an alkene but of glucose molecules, joined together in long chains. Rubber is a polymer too. But the polymers that this quiz is all about are the polymers that can be made from oil and oil products - these are the plastics.

The simplest of the alkenes is ethene. This is two carbon atoms joined together by a double bond. Attached to each of the carbon atoms are two hydrogen atoms so the formula is C2H4. Ethene molecules can be joined together to form long chains or polymers making the plastic that you know as polythene. Polythene is a trademark invented by the chemical company ICI. Its scientific name is poly(ethene).

The chemicals from which a polymer is made are called monomers. So, if the starting chemical, the monomer, is styrene, the polymer made from it is polystyrene and so on. So actually, you can often work out the starting chemical from the name of a polymer. The scientifically accepted way of writing the name of a polymer is poly(ethene), but it is also commonly written as polyethene.

Try this quiz to see how well you understand the chemistry of the polymers.

1.
Cracking fractions of crude oil produces smaller alkane molecules and alkenes. Which of the following is not an alkene?
C4H8
C22H44
C6H12
C10H22
The general formula for an alkene is CnH2n where n represents the number of atoms. In other words, any compound made from only carbon and hydrogen is an alkene if the number of hydrogen atoms is exactly double the number of carbon atoms
2.
Why are alkanes so useful as monomers?
Because alkanes contain only double bonds
Because alkanes contain only single bonds
Because alkanes contain at least one oxygen atom
Because alkanes contain at least one double bond between carbon atoms
The double bond between carbon atoms is easier to break than single bonds
3.
How is a double bond represented?
**
--
=
oxo
A short line resembling a 'dash' is used to represent a covalent chemical bond. In cases where there is more than one covalent bond between two atoms, the dashes are stacked one on top of each other
4.
How are polymers made from alkenes?
Polymers are one of the main products made by cracking crude oil
Polymers are made by adding lots of smaller molecules together in a long chain
Polymers are made by carrying out ordinary distillation on crude oil instead of fractional distillation
Polymers are made by using enzymes
The process is referred to as addition polymerisation. A polymer is a long chain molecule and its poperties depend on the molecules used to make it and the conditions used during polymerisation
5.
What do scientists call the small molecules that are joined together to make polymers?
Monomers
Minimers
Monomols
Minimols
This is because the prefix mono- means one on its own. The prefix poly- means many
6.
What monomer is used to make poly(propene)?
Ethene
Propene
Propane
Butane
The clue is in the name and you are looking for an alkene
7.
Which of the following is a use for polymers?
Waterproof coatings for fabrics
Fillings for teeth
Dressings for wounds
All of the above
There are very few everyday items that can't be made from polymers
8.
Which of the following is not an advantage of polymers?
Polymers are not usually biodegradeable
Polymers are light
Polymers are often flexible
Color can be built into a polymer when it is made
Microbes cannot usually break down polymers so they will remain in the environment. This creates problems with waste disposal
9.
How are scientists trying to make products made with polymers biodegradeable?
They are developing ways of chemically treating plastics as they go into landfill sites
They are developing methods of burning plastics that don't pollute the air
There is nothing that can be done to solve the problem
They are developing plastics that contain cornstarch as well as polymers
Cornstarch is biodegradeable. Adding cornstarch molecules into the polymer chains allows microbes such as bacteria and fungi to chop the polymer chains into smaller particles, thus breaking down the polymer. This is not a perfect solution since you end up with lots of small pieces of polymer molecules in the environment but at least it gets rid of the massive pieces of plastic that litter the world
10.
What is the most environmentally friendly way to dispose of your used plastic items?
Putting them into the bin
Recycling them
Burning them
Burying them
The raw material for plastics is oil. At some point in the future, all of the Earth's oil reserves will have been used up. As well as being good for the environment, recycling plastics is a great way of making oil reserves last longer
Author:  Kev Woodward

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