The gelation of polyvinyl alcohol with borax: A novel class participation experiment involving the preparation and properties of a "slime"

Casassa, E.Z.; Sarquis, Arlyne M.; Dyke, C.H. Van

doi:10.1021/ed063p57

Cited by 79 publications

(69 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…PVA/CR is a kind of ''slime'' with which children play. 69 Although ''slime'' is usually made of laundry starch (PVA) and borax, i.e., hydrated sodium borate, PVA/ borax aqueous solutions are thermoreversible gels and their sol-gel transition has been extensively invesitigated. [70][71][72][73] PVA (the degree of polymerization and the degree of saponification being 1800 and 99.96 mol %, respectively) was dissolved in boiling distilled water and filtered with a 0.2 mm filter.…”

Section: Inhomogeneities In Thermoreversible Physical Gelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Universality and Specificity of Polymer Gels Viewed by Scattering Methods

Shibayama¹

2006

Bulletin of the Chemical Society of Japan

108

112

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Concentration fluctuations in polymer gels are composed of dynamic thermal fluctuations and frozen inhomogeneities. Particularly, the latter is a characteristic of gels and is due to cross-linking. The frozen inhomogeneities manifest unique properties in polymer gels. Speckle patterns are commonly observed in gels. The time-correlation function of the scattering intensity entails a power-law behavior at the sol-gel transition. The appearance of speckle patterns is related to the nonergodicity of gels, and the power-law behavior corresponds to the self-similarity of clusters at the gelation threshold. In this review, it will be demonstrated that light scattering is one of the most powerful tools for structure characterization of polymer gels. Then, the universality and specificity of polymer gels will be examined for various types of gels, including physical gels, composite gels, and gelators.

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Section: Inhomogeneities In Thermoreversible Physical Gelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Universality and Specificity of Polymer Gels Viewed by Scattering Methods

Shibayama¹

2006

Bulletin of the Chemical Society of Japan

108

112

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“…This type of bonding could account for brittle leaves of boron-deficient plants, while plants grown with supraoptimal levels of boron produce leaves that are plastic or elastic in their response to bending (32,48,70). In addition, the slipping and sliding properties of "slime" (17,109), permitted by the H-bonding of hydroxyl groups on borate molecules and the hydroxyl groups of the polyvinyl alcohol, could explain the properties of primary cell walls at early stages of development (15).…”

Section: Role For Boron In Cell Wall Structurementioning

confidence: 99%

Boron in Plant Structure and Function

Blevins

Lukaszewski

1998

Annu. Rev. Plant. Physiol. Plant. Mol. Biol.

641

364

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New and exciting developments in boron research in the past few years greatly contributed to better understanding of the role of boron in plants. Purification and identification of the first boron-polyol transport molecules resolved much of the controversy about boron phloem mobility. Isolation and characterization of the boron-polysaccharide complex from cell walls provided the first direct evidence for boron crosslinking of pectin polymers. Inhibition and recovery of proton release upon boron withdrawal and restitution in plant culture medium demonstrated boron involvement in membrane processes. Rapid boron-induced changes in membrane function could be attributed to boron-complexing membrane constituents. Boron may affect metabolic pathways by binding apoplastic proteins to cis-hydroxyl groups of cell walls and membranes, and by interfering with manganese-dependent enzymatic reactions. In addition, boron has been implicated in counteracting toxic effects of aluminum on root growth of dicotyledonous plants. Molecular investigations of boron nutrition have been initiated by the discovery of a novel mutant of Arabidopsis thaliana with an altered requirement for boron.

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“…In this last case, the equilibria involved in the cosolute binding have been studied extensively (34-38), while the gelation observed under suitable conditions (39) has been used as the basis of a striking teaching and lecture-demonstration experiment (40,41).…”

Section: Liaisons In Cosolute-binding Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Role of Labile Cross-Links in the Behavior of Water-Soluble Polymers

Molyneux¹

1991

ACS Symposium Series

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The labile crosslinks (herein called "liaisons"), involving noncovalent and/or reversible covalent interactions, that arise between polymer chains when they come into contact, play an important part in the solution behavior of water-soluble polymers. Three cases are discussed in this paper: (1) a simple homopolymer alone in solution, where intrachain liaisons are the so-called "long-range interactions" which influence the conformational size of the molecule; (2) copolymers with a minor content of a comonomer unit which associates by hydrophobic or other interactions, where the application of liaison theory to two types of hydrophobically-associating copolymers -poly(vinyl acetate-co-vinyl alcohol), and alkyl-substituted hydroxyethylcellulose -leads to the establishment of a scale of free energies of hydrophobic-bonding between alkyl chains which is linear with chain length for the range n = 1 to 16; (3) cosolute-binding systems, where extra liaisons may arise from associations between the bound cosolute molecules.The aim of this paper is to show how the behavior of water-soluble polymers -especially their conformational size, their precipitability and phase-separation behavior, and their rheology -is affected by the labile crosslinks that arise between their chains when they come into contact. For convenience and brevity, these labile crosslinks will be called liaisons throughout the rest of the paper. Characteristics of LiaisonsA liaison is taken to be formed wherever there is a contact either between two distantly-connected parts of the same polymer chain ("intrachain") or between parts of two different polymer chains

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The gelation of polyvinyl alcohol with borax: A novel class participation experiment involving the preparation and properties of a "slime"

Cited by 79 publications

References 2 publications

Universality and Specificity of Polymer Gels Viewed by Scattering Methods

Universality and Specificity of Polymer Gels Viewed by Scattering Methods

Boron in Plant Structure and Function

Role of Labile Cross-Links in the Behavior of Water-Soluble Polymers

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