Question

What is plastic? Give characteristics of plastics.​

Answer 1

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• Plastics are a group of materials, either synthetic or naturally occurring, that may be shaped when soft and then hardened to retain the given shape. Plastics are polymers. A polymer is a substance made of many repeating units.

Characteristics of plastics:-

• Plastic is chemically unreactive:Plastics do not react with air and water.
• Plastics are poor conductor of heat and electricity:They do not conduct heat or electricity,so they be used as insulators.
• Plastics can be moulded into different shapes.
• Plastics are quite cheaper and easily made.

Answer 2

$\bf Plastics$

Plastic has become a necessity in today's world. Almost all the domestic items are now made up of plastics such as combs, mugs, buckets, chairs, ballpens, cabinets, containers, brushes and so on. There is no end to the number of plastic items used by us. Hence, the present time can be rightly referred to as the 'age of plastics'. Plastic is a synthetic material which can be moulded into desired shape when soft and then hardened to produce a durable article. Like synthetic fibres, plastics are also polymers. This means that plastics consist of very long chain of molecules made by joining many small molecules together. The starting materials for plastic are obtained from petroleum products called 'petrochemicals'.

Properties of Plastics

Plastics are non-reactive

Plastics are light

Plastics are strong and durable

Plastics are poor conductor of heat

Plastics are inert to chemistry

Plastics are insoluble in water

Plastics are highly inflammable

Plastics are generally cheeper in comparison to other material such as metals and are also easy to handle.