They are materials created by human work, usually more resistant and permanent than natural ones, which are widely used in industries for the creation and manufacture of many products.
These materials have largely replaced natural ones, such as paper bags, for plastic ones, the use of natural fabrics for fabrics made of this same compound, as well as the disposable bottles that are seen in the Most of the containers used to be glass.
These make up a little less than half of what comprises all the existing materials on earth, and are much cheaper than natural ones, and do not degrade so easily with the passing of time, which has caused some controversy among environmentalists as they have been said to have caused problems for the environment.
What are synthetic materials?
These are materials created from the use of chemical synthesis, which seeks to imitate some natural processes, improving their characteristics, to create materials with a better chemical composition with respect to durability and resistance.
These are artificial in nature, since they cannot be found with natural processes on earth, until today a number of 26 of these compounds have been created that have the atomic numbers from 85 to 118, there are even some materials that were created synthetically, that with the passing of the years a natural source of these was found, such as plutonium.
Characteristics of synthetic materials
Synthetic materials, especially plastics, are created with a basic resin, which is the main component of these, they are derived from oil, and are composed of macromolecules, which in turn are made up of the union of hundreds of molecules, the processes to obtain these macromolecules are as follows.
Polyaddition
It is a reaction that is achieved by releasing high amounts of heat that simultaneously polymerize two or more monomers, with this procedure synthetic rubber can be obtained.
Polymerization
It begins by adding a catalyst and a reaction accelerator that are used with great frequency, it consists of the union of two homogeneous and individual molecules to obtain larger molecules.
Polycondensation
Two molecules seek the interaction between them, generating macromolecules, in which molecules as large as those that originate the polymerization are not obtained, this is because they are forming together, which consequently delays the entire procedure.
Main synthetic materials and their uses
Being materials clearly created by man, this is very useful with respect to the commercial, because the main objective of these is to create more durable and resistant products, to satisfy the needs of the consumer, and among the main ones in the manufacturing industries are as follows.
Plastic
It is a material that can be stowed and moldable to the need for it, it also lacks an evaporation point, and is the most used by industries today, and is the main component of many synthetic materials.
The first type of plastic that was observed in history was in the year 1860 when a man organized a contest for someone to invent a material to replace the ivory in billiard balls, which he succeeded and was a product very important for the time.
Plastic has a macromolecular structure, which are chemical substances known as polymers, which is achieved thanks to polymerization. These have great unique qualities such as a very light weight, resistance to degradation caused by the environment and any color can be applied.
This, in turn, is very easy to work with, resistant to corrosion, waterproof and good insulators from electricity, among many other characteristics that this material so widely used today has.
Spandex
Commercially known as lycra or spandex, it is a urethane copolymer made up of 95% in total of segmented polyurethanes, whose main base is polybutenic ether, thus obtaining extensive molecular chains, which can form monofilaments or multifilaments
It is a fabric that is pleasant to the touch and stretches easily, widely used in sportswear because it adapts to the body and gives extreme comfort to use, it works as a continuous filament due to its characteristic of being monofilament or multifilament as shown above. .
All kinds of garments are produced with this material, such as sports shirts, leggings or lycra, sports socks, underwear, bathing suits or bathing suits, among many others.
Nylon
It belongs to the group of polyamides, when a diamine is polycondensed with a diacid, this polymer is generated, known as Nylon by the trademark "Nylon" and it is also believed that the name was given by the employees of the shipping services, who found It was very difficult to pronounce the original name, so it was assigned the initials of the main cities that sent it, which were New York and London, taking the letters NY from the first and LON from the second.
This component is widely used in industries to create products such as screws, engine or machine parts, fishing nylon, zippers, among others.
Carbon fiber
These are sheets created at home of carbon that contain fine filaments of approximately 5 to 10 micrometers that are equivalent to a tenth of what would be a millimeter, it has many similarities with steel in terms of its mechanical properties, in turn it shows more resistance that this when impacting against a blunt object.
In the beginning it was an excessively expensive material which was only used for space profit purposes, but this was lowering its cost, and other industries began to take advantage of it for its strength like that of steel, but an incredibly light weight like that of plastic.
First they started with means of transport, cars were increasingly resistant and lighter, which promoted the use of engines with less power in some of the companies, and in turn increased interest in trade, as These days you can notice the presence of this material on bicycles, watches, wallets among many others that are for daily use.
Ecological plastics
Also known as bioplastics, they are materials that are very similar molecularly to normal polymers, but with the great difference that they are manufactured with renewable resources, which give them the quality of being able to degrade naturally.
These come attached to the future, the possibilities of using them even as the bottles that contain the consumable liquids are currently being studied, so when they are discarded they would not contaminate with the same impact that the original plastics do.
Acrylics
It is a plastic sheet that is obtained by polymerizing methyl methacrylate, this being the most resistant among transparent plastics, for that reason it has great commercial value among various industries such as automotive, medical, lighting and entertainment.
It is an extremely easy material to repair in terms of scratches, they have a low manufacturing cost which makes them very interesting from an industrial point of view, which is seen more frequently every day, even in home decorations, due to its easy way to mold it and resistance, in some cases resembling glass, but the weakness of fracturing.
It does not age with the UV rays of the sun, nor with the passage of environmental processes in it, at least until after 10 years, it has insulating characteristics to electricity and thermal stability, it is more transparent than glass, it has great ease handling when machining and shaping it.
Kevlar
It is a type of highly resistant plastic which has characteristics of difficulty when manufacturing it, it is a polyamide, which its mechanization is complicated, but once this was achieved it began to be marketed quickly, due to its great power of resistance against almost any attack.
Thanks to this material, it has been possible to manufacture products as resistant as steel, but with a totally light weight, such as kayaks, protective gloves against cuts or scrapes, space suits, USB cables for mobile devices, bulletproof vests, helmets of motorcycles and of formula 1, threads for sewing, are used in some models of sports shoes, among many others.
It also has properties such as high resistance to cuts, chemical properties, has thermal stability, has low conductivity with respect to electricity, and has a firm and strong structure.
Smart polymers
With the exponential advance of technology, it has been sought that these possess qualities of natural components, such as adaptation to certain climatic conditions, to further sustain their durability.
The characteristics of this polymer have led to consideration in its use for the manufacture of some products such as smart windows and glasses, artificial muscles, administration of medicines among many others that although they are not yet physical, this may be observed in the near future. in everyday products.
Environmental impact of synthetics
The use of these materials has created great devastation in the environment, due to the massive consumerism in terms of products in which they are contained with plastic materials, which have created a large amount of waste that does not have qualities to degrade due to its count, if not until about 200 years.
At the same time, as a counter attack, recycling campaigns have been carried out, so that when discarding a synthetic product, it is recycled, so that the remains of this allow the manufacture of new products, being a cycle of use.
The possibilities of creating biodegradable polymers have even been studied, such as bioplastics, which are made from recycled organic materials.