Polymer Lab Group Investigation

In this lab we added cornstarch to the borax lab that we did last week. We added less water and less glue to the solution. We only used about 2 tablespoons of the borax solution. We added the cornstarch after we added the small amount of water to the glue. Once we started to stir all the materials together it started to get harder to stir. It became a very sticky and white solid goop. It seemed like we took the inside of a marshmallow and out it in our hands. It was almost impossible to mold together into a ball. It would just stick to our palms and fingers. After a couple of minutes we noticed that the solid became less sticky and was finally able to mold into a small ball. The ball was not able to bounce it would just flop down and do nothing. There was no roll or any rebound. After a little more time of kneading it in our hands it started to be more elastic and it bounced up maybe about 2 or 3cm. It was definitely elastic enough to stretch about 2 feet or maybe 1 and 1/2 feet. We decided to break it into two different pieces and stick one in the fridge for about 10 minutes or so. During that period of time we still just kept kneading the ball hoping to get some sort of reaction so that the ball will be able to bounce and become much less sticky, but we had no success with it. Once the 10 minutes were up we got the other ball out of the fridge and it look like a partially deflated ballon. I pulled it out and it stuck to the surface and I had to peel it off. We took it back to the table and it was very sticky and cold. It also wouldn't bounce. We compared the elasticity of the two. They both stretched to a large length, but the one that was in the fridge seemed to be able to hold it more together and stretch farther then the other one that was being rolled the whole time. I think that if we did this same lab again with the same materials we should increase the amount of everything because we only used maybe about a tsp of water which was not enough if you ask me. I think that we should at least double or even triple the amount of materials. Also when we put the borax into the water it seemed to have a very hard time dissolving into the water. We stirred it for several minutes but almost all of it didn't dissolve. That could have been a huge factor in the characteristics of the solid. Maybe if the borax had dissolved more into the water the ball wouldn't have been as sticky as it was and maybe a little more bouncy and easier to stick together into a solid material. If the material wasn't so sticky I think it definitely could have bounced at least 2 or 3 more cm than what it did. This was a good lab because we were able to make a solid out of those same materials but just adding a small amount of cornstarch to the solution.