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Environment

Polymers... Or Slime

January 10, 2011 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 89, Issue 2

In the Dec. 13, 2010, issue of C&EN (page 13) the caption on picture (1) says, “A girl … makes polymers from glue and borax.” To my best knowledge, it is more likely that the girl is making a slime using glue and borax. The glue can be polyvinyl acetate-based such as the commonly used white glue. The glue contains polymer (polyvinyl acetate) itself. The nature of the slime that the girl is making is more like a gel (that is, the polyvinyl acetate cross-linked with borate) than a “polymer.”

Leiming Li
Sugar Land, Texas

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