Cross Linking Glue With Borax

STQ: What is the change in physical properties of a polymer in the results of cross-linking?

Hypothesis: Bonding the glue and the Borax and water will cause it to be thicker and a slight puddy like form and texture.

Procedures: Add 1 tablespoon of Borax powder to 100 mL of water in the 600 mL beaker and stir. Measure out 25 mL Elmer’s Glue in the 250 mL beaker and add 5 mL of water and stir. Mix 40 mL of Borax solution to the glue solution and stir vigorously for a little while and it will change to a puddy like substance. You can now dump out the rest of the water once you have taken out your puddy.

Results:

It looks sort of clumpy as the picture shows and feels quite gooey and squishy, and smells like glue of course. On a scale of 1-5 for slimness is a 2. When you poke it slowly it sort of goes concave and then goes back to normal. My finger does not go through at all! When you poke it fast the same thing happens. When you stretch it slowly it will strech quite a bit then break, but if you do it fast it will immediately snap into 2 pieces. When flattening it it becomes flat then goes back to the way it was before. When dropped from 30 cm it bounced back 15 cm.
1.)How is slime viso-elastic?
It was viso-elastic because it always tried to go back to the original shape.

2.)What are the physical properties that change as a result of the addition of sodium
It started to get a puddy like texture and the glue and Borox bonded together.

3.)What would be the effect of adding more sodium borate to your cup?
I think it would hold the puddy together longer if more Borox solution was added.

4.)How does water affect elasticity of the palmer?
Water held the puddy together better so when it dried the more brittle it was. Elasticity is the stretchiness of an item.

5.)What is the repeating molecule?
The repeating molecules were as shown in number 6

6.)What is the structural formula of the poly(vinvyl alcohol) monomer?
H3-C2-OH

7.)Circle the borax cross-linking agent.
Out of the two pictures the one with the B in the middle is the Borox cross-linking agent.

Conclusion!
Well we made a polymer our of our monomers! Exactly how I believed my hypothesis to be! This could help because it gives us experience in how to make polymers! There needs to be at least two monomers and a cross-linking agent! The only problem we had was a little hiccup when we had a teaspoon and it said 1 tablespoon, but a group member helped me remember it was 3 teaspoons per 1 tablespoon. We could use this to perhaps recreate the experiment to make puddy for little siblings to goof around with! Adding more Borox could perhaps change the thickness or the strength of the puddy.