Plastics & Freezing Temperatures

Polymer Craft Research about plastic
1

Thank you for clicking on this awesome topic,

Many of the topics discussed are about melting plastics to create new forms.
I would like to open a discussing on the topic of plastics and very low temperatures!
The freezing temperatures can have impact on the original properties of plastics. They might become more brittle to shred easily or more stiff preventing plastic beams or tubes from bending etc.

As you might wonder, there must be many and many pieces of plastic stuck in Antarctica for example!! I started this because of people using plasticobjects in very cold places telling me they rip or break easily.

I did an experiment with seven types of plastics see picture.
In the experiment I compressed the plastics in blocks like Dave did in the results of heating plastic blocks in the Melting scheme.
I did this to make sure the material was solid and not easy to break in the first place. All the samples where frozen on minus 22 degrees in water bloks to make sure they where all the same temperature on all places.

My result is that I could not break any of the plastic blocks. So for me I did not find any extraordinary reactions! (Yet!)
Due to time I will not be able to continue experimenting. There fore I am very interested if others have experiences or done research on this topic!
Let me and us know 😉 ! #plasticfantastik

0

1862×1236 115 KB
3008×2000 777 KB
1412×940 183 KB

2

And the process!

1320×736 215 KB
1326×876 278 KB
1080×720 170 KB

3

Try dipping them in liquid nitrogen! That should do it! 🙂

4

@plastikfantastik
Hey its a good question. I made blocks that where quite solid because I wanted to avoid just brutal force making the thin material crack anyway. An example of what i’ve heared was a backpack made from cheap plastic material break in the cold. But I would still really like to see people trying thin sheets or pipes of plastic break when being frozen!

5

@thomasthefirst  “people using plastic objects in very cold places telling me they rip or break easily” Did your experiment have the same density of plastic material from the people that you heard from? It seems that all though I have not done any experiments with super cold temperatures just cooling processes “which makes hot plastic shrink btw” I think your experiment might have missed a detail that could be important for your findings.