Glass, clay ceramics and polymers

Overview

How soda-lime and borosilicate glass are made and why borosilicate suits laboratory beakers, making clay ceramics such as pottery and bricks, how monomers and conditions decide polymer properties, low and high density poly(ethene), and thermosoftening and thermosetting polymers, their uses and recycling.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   Which type of glass is most commonly used, and how is it made?

   Model answer

   Soda-lime glass, made by heating a mixture of sand, sodium carbonate and limestone.

2. 2

   What is borosilicate glass made from?

   Model answer

   Sand and boron trioxide.

3. 3

   State one way borosilicate glass differs from soda-lime glass.

   Model answer

   It melts at a higher temperature.

4. 4

   Suggest why laboratory beakers are made from borosilicate glass.

   Model answer

   It melts at a higher temperature, so it withstands strong heating without softening.

5. 5

   Name two clay ceramics.

   Model answer

   Pottery and bricks.

6. 6

   How is a clay ceramic made?

   Model answer

   Wet clay is shaped and then heated in a furnace.

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