• Question: why cant you evapourate plastic

    Asked by ironman007 to Charlie, Danielle, Henry, Nicola, Zoe on 16 Jun 2014.
    • Photo: Danielle Epstein

      Danielle Epstein answered on 16 Jun 2014:


      Excellent question- and the answer is all to do with the bonds in plastic. Bonds in plastic are very strong and in order for a substance to evaporate the bonds need to be quite weak. This is so they can easily gain enough energy (usually through heat) to break away from the bulk and head off into the atmosphere.

      Have you learnt about different types of bonds in science yet? Do you know what sort of strong bonds there are in plastics?

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