SG Lim
Science Journsl#1
April 19th,2018
Synthetic& Natural resources and Polymer
Synthetic& Natural resources:
In the world, we can divide all the resources into two different kinds. One is synthetic materials, and another one is natural resources. When you hear the first word natural or synthetic resources, you might just think that natural resources are resources from nature, and synthetic materials are things made by a human, which means artificial. In chemistry, it is very similar to what you already know. Natural resources are the resources that made by nature and are crude such as oil, rubber and so on. In contrast, synthetic materials are the combination of natural resources. To be classified a synthetic, it should get chemically changed by human-lab and forms a new substance with a new characteristic. We get synthetic materials from natural resources:
- Polymers
A polymer is a polymer which is a molecule made of high molecular weight made from a large number of single-phase monomers that are connected together by a shared combination of smaller molecular particles. For example, the most commonly used polymers, plastic, is a synthesized product of resin and also a type of polymer made by combining petroleum-based materials. Another synthetic polymer, for instance, is a rubber. Rubber is a type of polymer made by combining materials from petroleum.
- Usage of polymers in our society.
In fact, polymers mostly compose our life. Actually, everything around us is polymers except for stones, glass, and metals. And they made out life much more comfortable and convenient. Just like plastics. Now we use plastic everywhere because it’s cheap and can be modified in many different ways. Some scientists even said that “Polymers are the new great discovery that made 20th-century people’s live better quality”.
- Making from natural resource to synthetic materials
To make synthetic materials, it should be made from natural resources. For instance, to make plastic, the most commonly used synthetic materials(polymer), we need Petroleum, which is found in the deep inside of the earth, and it is a natural resource.
“Polymer.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 14 Apr. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymer.
“GCSE Bitesize: Synthetic and Natural Materials.” BBC, BBC, www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/science/21c_pre_2011/materials/chemicalscrudeoilrev1.shtml.
