The Heating Plastics educational game with a related reading are based on the 1963 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, which was awarded for the discovery of a catalyst making it possible to produce superior plastics.
- What are plastics made from?
- What happens in an oil refinery?
- What do the plastic molecules look like?
- What is the difference between thermoplastics and thermoset?
- What is a catalyst used for?
For thousands of years people have been using silk, wool, cotton, wood and leather. In the last century or so, we have added plastics to this list. The key to developing the plastics we now use were the discoveries made by the Nobel Prize awarded scientists Karl Ziegler and Giulio Natta in the 1950s.
In this game you are to heat plastics and see what happens. There are two major groups of plastics - some melt when heated and others don't. Find out why!
For instructions of how to play the game, click on the HELP button found at the bottom of the game window.
- Plastics have changed the world
- What are plastics?
- How to make plastic: polymerization in detail
- Polymers are everywhere
- Thermoplastics and thermosets
- Better catalysts improve plastics
- Plastics, society, and environment
Read "Plastics and Polymers" »
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