II. Famous People of Science: Alfred Bernhard Nobel.

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II. Famous People of Science: Alfred Bernhard Nobel.

Text A: «PLASTICS»

Plastics are non-metallic, synthetic, carbon-based materials. They can be moulded, shaped, or extruded into flexible sheets, films, or fibres. Plastics are synthetic polymers. Polymers consist of long-chain mole­cules made of large numbers of identical small molecules (monomers). The chemical nature of a plastic is defined by the monomer (repeating unit) that makes up the chain of the polymer. Polyethene is a polyolefin; its monomer unit is ethene (formerly called ethylene). Other catego­ries are acrylics (such as polymethylmethacrylate), styrenes (such as polystyrene), vinys (such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC)), polyes­ters, polyurethanes, polyamides (such as nylons), polyethers, acetals, phenolics, cellulosics, and amino resins. The molecules can be either natural — like cellulose,wax, and natural rubber — or synthetic — in polyethene and nylon. In co-polymers, more than one monomer is used.

The giant molecules of which polymers consist may be linear,branched, or cross-linked, depending on the plastic. Linear and branched molecules are thermoplas­tic (soften when heated), whereas cross-linked molecules arethermosetting (harden when heated).

Most plastics aresynthesized from organicchemicalsor from natural gas or coal. Plastics are light-weight com­pared to metals and are good electrical insulators. The best insulators now are epoxy resins and teflon. Teflon or polytetrafluoroethene (PTFE) was first made in 1938 and was produced commercially in 1950.

Plastics can be classified into several broad types.

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