Done by Higgs bosons group at Albayan School. Under supervision from Al-Bairaq

1. AL-BAIRAQ
I AM DISCOVERING MATERIALS 13TH CYCLE
POLYMERS
H I G G S B O S O N S :
A L J A Z I A L K U W A R I
H I N D A L M O H A N N A D I
Z A I N A B H A J I

2. OUTLINE
• Introduction
• Activity 1: Changing Polymer Pellets
• Activity 2: Hunting for Polymer Products
• Activity 3: Comparing the Viscosity of
Liquids
• Activity 4: Testing the Strength of
Different Polymer Films
• Design Project: Designing a Humidity
Sensor
• Product Idea

3. INTRODUCTION
•What is a polymer?
It is the process of monomers
bonding
together to make a polymer.
 There are two types of polymers
1. -Natural polymers :
Corn starch, silk, DNA
2.-Synthetic polymers:
Polyethylene, polyacrylamide,
polyvinyl

4. ACTIVITIES 1: CHANGING POLYMER PELLETS
 Objective:
How the polymer pellets work.
 Procedure:
In this experiment we took two samples of
polyacrylamide poured them in two beakers and
labeled them as A and B. Then we added water to
both of them, and they absorbed it and became
bigger. After that, we added another dose of water to
A and salt-water to B. Because of that A became even
bigger, and B shrunk.

6. ACTIVITIES 1: CHANGING POLYMER PELLETS
 Results
Beaker A Beaker B
Mass 0.50 g 0.50g
Observation Dry small pellets Dry small pellets
Mass after adding 10 g of
water
8.67g 8.66g
Observation It absorbed the water ,and
it became bigger in size.
It absorbed the water ,and
it became bigger in size.
Mass after adding water
& salt-water
Water, 19.98g Salt water, 16.11g
Observation It swelled because of its
aility to absorb water.
It shrunk.
• Conclusion
The polyacrylamide pellets swell and shrink because of
the concentration of water molecules.

7. ACTIVITIES 2: HUNTING FOR POLYMER PRODUCTS
• Objective:
To recognize the wide use of polymers in our
everyday lives and to observe some
properties of polymers .
•Procedure:
We searched for different types of polymers,
and we learned that there is 2 main types of
polymers, synthetic such as polyethylene, and
natural such as corn starch.

8. ACTIVITIES 2: HUNTING FOR POLYMER PRODUCTS
Synthetic
polymers
• Conclusion
We discovered that the silk, wool, DNA and
cellulose are natural polymers while polyester ,
polyethylene and polyacrylamide are synthetic
Natural polymers

9. ACTIVITIES 3: COMPARING THE VISCOSITY OF LIQUIDS
• Objective:
Viscosity is a fluid’s resistance to flow, it
can also
be described in terms of fluid’s thickness
to understand the meaning of viscosity and
explore the effect of polymer molecular
weight and concentration on the viscosity
of polymer solutions.
• Procedure:
In this experiment we compared 3 liquids that
are different in viscosity.

10. ACTIVITIES 3: COMPARING THE VISCOSITY OF LIQUIDS
Results
Name of
liquid
Chemical formula Molecular
weight
Methanol CH3OH 32 g/mol
Ethylene
glycol
HOCH2CH2OH 62 g/mol
Glycerol HOCH2CH2CH(OH)CH
2OH
92 g/mol
High viscosity
• Conclusion
We found that the higher the molecular
weight is the higher viscosity we get.
low viscosity

11. ACTIVITIES 4: TESTING THE STRENGTH OF DIFFERENT
POLYMER FILMS
• Objective:
Testing and Comparing the stretchability
and tensile strength of polymer
• Procedure:
We prepared polyvinyl acetate films that are
different in molecular weight and we tested the
stretchability and tensile strength of each film .

12. ACTIVITIES 4: TESTING THE STRENGTH OF DIFFERENT
POLYMER FILMS
• Conclusion
We found out that when the molecular
weight of the polymer is more, the
strength is more and the strechability is
less.
• Results

14. DESIGN PROJECT DESIGNING A HUMIDITY SENSOR
• Objective: Design a humidity sensor made
of a polymer film that changes color as
the moisture level in its environment
changes.• Procedure:
We designed a humidity sensor using
different percentages of polymers and
added cobalt chloride that changes from
blue to pink in the presence of humidity.

15. DESIGN PROJECT DESIGNING A HUMIDITY SENSOR
• Result
s
• Conclusion
The color of the polymer changed
immediately to blue after it’s been heated
which means it’s the best humidity

16. FINAL PROJECT:
USE IT MORE, IT’S SAFE
NOW

17. USE IT MORE, IT’S SAFE NOW
D2W is the brand for controlled-life
plastic technology which is designed to
control and shorten the life of plastic in the
packaging of drugs and medicines for
example insulin pens.
The percentage of diabetes patients has risen
in Qatar, 17% adults and 35% children, most
of them use insulin pens on daily basis,
which are made of plastic that doesn’t
degrade and causes harm to the

18. USE IT MORE, IT’S SAFE NOW
Our hypothesis is that using
D2W in most plastic products
that we use daily, can
minimize the pollution that is
caused by plastic wastes.
Hypothesis

19. USE IT MORE, IT’S SAFE NOW
METHODS AND MATERIALS
1.Replacing polypropylene in Insulin
pens with D2W .
2.Test D2W in insulin to observe it’s
reaction with insulin.
3.Study the possibility of recycling
biodegradable Insulin pens into plastic
bags.

20. USE IT MORE, IT’S SAFE NOW
polymer D2W polypropyle
ne
quantity 1 ton 1 ton
price 700$/mt 950$/mt
It’s cheaper by
26.316%.
Financial study

21. USE IT MORE, IT’S SAFE NOW
The D2W did not reacted with the insulin
witch makes safe to use it in different
medicine packaging.
Results

22. USE IT MORE, IT’S SAFE NOW
• We can use D2W in any plastic products like
packaging and it’s safe for people and the
environment.
• We recommend doing more researches and
tests on D2W due to it’s benefits and
advantages.
• We faced an obstacle in our experiment of
our product that it can increase the carbon
dioxide levels in the air , in order to overcome
that we found out that Qatar has a vision to
plant 22 million trees by 2022.
Recommendations

23. CONCLUSION
We learned a lot of information about
polymers and it’s importance in our
daily life witch helped us to gain the
benefits of teamwork to come up with
our idea about replacing regular
polymers by D2W that saves the
environment from toxins.

24. ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Many thanks to my teachers, school and AL-Bairaq
team from Center for Advanced Materials (CAM),
Qatar University for supporting us during our
journey with a AL-Bairaq.
Also, I would like to thank the sponsors UNESCO,
Qatar National Commission, and Shell.