Making Slime...

Recently, my advanced chemistry course has been a bit ordinary. Electrochemistry and the like subjects have been the focus of the past few chapters. Although electrochemistry is pretty cool, and I can sort of comprehend it, there weren't really any cool experiments that went with them. The module I just started, however, is on organic chemistry. Although the material itself is difficult to comprehend and a bit tedious, I did get to do a cool experiment involving the making of slime.

Basically, I dissolved some borax into warm tap water, measured out 2.5 mL of it, colored it green, and poured it into some polyvinyl alcohol adhesive and proceeded to stir. It then took on a slimey consistency, not really a solid, but not really a liquid. It poured like a liquid, but it didn't pour very well, or as well as liquids do.

You may be wondering, "How does this magic work?" Actually, it's rather simple: when the borax was added to the polyvinyl alcohol adhesive, the polyvinyl alcohol adhesive molecules started to link together, forming a network of molecules resembling a solid. However, when I started stirring it, the water got trapped inside of it, giving it the properties of both a solid and liquid. I colored it green mainly for the cool effect. Here are some pictures of the "hideous" substance (as my sister called it):

 

And my sister holding this said "hideous" substance.