Question

Please help! will fan and medal!! Chemistry b: Which plastic do you think could best contain extremely corrosive material? Why?

Answer 1

http://courses.chem.psu.edu/chem112/materials/polymers.html

This should help you

Answer 2

Thank you so much! @Australopithecus from what I understood the plastics must be able to withstand heat. None of the polymers were an option on my table, but that helped.

These are my options:

Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET or PETE)
High Density Polyethylene (HDPE)
Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC)
Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE)
Polypropylene (PP)
Polystyrene (PS)

What do you think it is?

Answer 3

I'm kind of thinking HDPE since it's high density

Answer 4

If it is cross linked it will be corrosion resistant

Answer 5

At least that is a good rule of thumb because linear and branched polymers are held together generally by intermolecular bonds (branched not so much but still to a degree less than cross linked), where as cross linked are help largely together by covalent bonds. Corrosive material can likely disrupt this intermolecular structure cause a plastic to fail. Also if there are impurities in the plastic to allow it to react with the corrosive material cross linked will hold strong because if you brake one link there are multiple others (it kind of has a ladder structure).

Good life tip if you ever deal with non-polar solvents, paints etc always use cross linked material unless you want to deal with a dissolved container

Answer 6

Based on a wikipedia source I found for this dissolution of polymers is the main cause of corrosion of polymers.

Answer 7

your best bet is to just google each polymer see if it is cross linked if it isnt then it probably isnt corrosion resistant

Answer 8

okay thanks!

Answer 9

actually PVC is corrosion resistant, most plastics should be corrosion resistant because they are non-polyer and their general structure does not allow them to be non-reactive with typically corrosive materials