ScienceFix

The winter holidays are here, and it’s time for a related science demo! If you teach about the chemistry of polymers, instant snow is a fun demo to do around the holidays. Instant snow is a superabsorbant polymer. A polymer is a complex molecules made of smaller molecules. Poly means many and mer means unit. The smaller unit are called monomers (”one unit”). The monmers are held together by covalent bonds. When water is added to the instant snow polymer, water is aborbed into the polymer until it can’t hold any more. Instant snow is availbe at Think Geek. The video below shows instant snow in action.

Update: If you are wondering what the compound is, it is sodium polyacrylate, which is (via Wikipedia)

crosslinked acrylic acid polymersodium salt, invented by Robert Niles Bashaw, Bobby Leroy Atkins and Billy Gene Harper in the Basic Research Laboratory of the Dow Chemical Company. Polymers were produced which absorbed up to 10,000 times their weight in distilled water (gel capacity) and are called polyelectrolytes. These polymers are referred to as “Super Absorbents”