An Introduction to the Scientific Process: Preparation of Poly(vinyl acetate) Glue

Abstract

Preparation of a poly(vinyl acetate) latex and testing of its capacity to act as a glue was found to be a very successful way to introduce students not only to the chemistry of free radical polymerization in emulsion, but to the scientific method. With a high level of success, students prepared latexes according to a number of recipes containing varying amounts of poly(vinyl alcohol), then developed their own testing procedures in groups. Results were passed on to successive groups of students, allowing testing procedures to be optimized and hypotheses about the influence of chemical structure on adhesion to be developed over time within a "model research community". Responses from the students involved have been overwhelmingly positive, and we feel that the exercise has encouraged student interest in a scientific career as well as imparting information about important aspects of chemistry rarely covered in secondary or early undergraduate courses.

Tracing Poly(Vinyl Acetate) Emulsions by Infrared and Raman Spectroscopies: Identification of Spectral Markers

“…Vinyl homopolymer emulsions with known formulations: three different vinyl emulsion formulations have been prepared following the recipe in [34]: (i) pure PVAc emulsion, (ii) PVAc emulsion containing 5% of poly(vinyl alcohol), and (iii) PVAc emulsion containing 10% of poly(vinyl alcohol). These three emulsions are non-plasticised formulations and the poly(vinyl alcohol) was added as an emulsion stabiliser, which also contributes to lowering the film Tg.…”

Empirical Evidence or Intuition? An Activity Involving the Scientific Method

“…The statistics simply provide the evidence. Several exercises implementing the scientific method have been published in this Journal using history (8), mass measurements (9), organic synthesis (10), and polymer preparation (11). The strength of this activity is that (i) it is accessible to high school and college students, (ii) it can take an opinion that students may hold strongly and dispel it with empirical evidence that is student-measured in less than 30 minutes, and (iii) it requires no foreknowledge of chemistry-only some very basic math skills.…”

Comparing Spectroscopic Techniques, Instruments, and Sample Analysis in a Guided Inquiry Lab to Promote Students’ Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving Abilities

“…The lack of a clear procedure to follow forces students to understand not only what they are doing, but why they have chosen the approach as well. Supporting this concept, numerous examples of inquiry-based laboratory experiments have appeared in the analytical curriculum as well as throughout the other subdisciplines in the chemistry curriculum. − …”