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Topic: Sodium Polyacrylate and Failure  (Read 1684 times)

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Offline alamonyjester

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Sodium Polyacrylate and Failure
« on: May 20, 2014, 01:12:42 PM »
In my highschool Chemistry Class we were tasked with picking a chemistry related experiment to perform in front of the class as well as explain the reaction and formulas. My partner and I decided to choose Sodium Polyacrylate(Instant Snow) as our experiment and started our research. Unfortunately, the day of our experiment our Chemistry teacher told us that we could not to the experiment because the process of sodium polyacrylate doing what it does best (absorbing water, and then reverting from a gel to a liquid) are both not chemical reactions and would not suffice at all.

My question for you guys is: Is there anything that we can do with the powder that we have to make a chemical reaction that would meet the criteria(has a chemical reaction and chemical equation)?

Offline Polytriazole

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Re: Sodium Polyacrylate and Failure
« Reply #1 on: May 24, 2014, 11:54:49 PM »
You should check with your teacher first, but this might meet the criteria:

Poly(acrylic acid) is the conjugate acid of sodium polyacrylate.  In plain water, the polymer will absorb water to become a hydrogel.  However, if you add salt (sodium chloride) to the gel, it will collapse and the polymer particles will shrink.  You could use this as a demonstration of equilibrium chemistry, perhaps.

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