Once Again, SG Saved The Day!

Part of the sole of your shoe came off? You broke a small part of mommy's favourite vase?
No fear! SG is here! (Hey, that rhymes!)
SG who?


He's none other than our daily superhero, Super Glue. (Okay, I understand if you're giving me the 'You-are-so-lame-I-don't-know-what-to-say' face. I'm totally cool with it.)

So what makes super glue so super? Super glue contains an ingredient known as the cyanoacrylate, C₅H₅NO_2.

Ethyl cyanoacrylate

Methyl cyanoacrylate

Cyanoacrylate is an acrylic resin which will quickly polymerised when water especially hydroxide ions are present. It will then form long and strong chains and thus, it will join the two surfaces together. The cyanoacrylate glue will then thicken and harden until the molecular strands can never move from their positions. And because of this ingredient in the super glue, the glue must be recap after use as the presence of moisture will cause the glue to harden and the glue will lose its usability.

Polymerisation of cyanoacrylate
(Click to enlarge)

Cyanoacrylate hardens quickly, usually less than or around a minute. Meanwhile, a normal bond will reach its full strength within 2 hours and it is waterproof. Low temperature however will weakened the cyonoacrylate's bond.

There is one thing to take note here. If you happen to apply super glue unto materials made of cotton or wool, an exothermic reaction will occur and heat released might cause minor burns on a person. If a large amount of cyanoacrylate is used, you can actually set the cotton on fire! Wow right?

Don't play play with SG!

Rubber That Doesn't Lose Its Elasticity.

Do you know what is the sole of your shoe made of? Or even your car tires? Yes, they are both made from rubber but not your ordinary natural rubber. They are made from vulcanised rubber.

The PCK boots. Or at least it looks like PCK's.

Why not natural rubber you asked? Well, that is because natural rubber is elastic in nature. When the natural rubber is streched, compressed or even bent, the entangled molecules will slide over one another. When the force is removed, the rubber molecules will then return to their original position. However, if the natural rubber is over-stretched, the molecules will not move back to their original position. This piece of natural rubber has lost its elasticity.

What is vulcanised rubber then? Vulcanised rubber consists of rubber molecules that are covalently bonded to their neighbouring molecules through sulphur atoms and thus, forming a huge structure. Vulcanised rubber is around 10 times stronger and more rigid than natural rubber. Besides that, vulcanised rubber is also more elastic and more durable compared to unvulcanised rubber. It is also heat and abrasion resistant.


How is natural rubber vulcanised? Natural rubber undergoes a process called the vulcanisation of rubber to form vulcanised rubber. Vulcanisation is the process where by rubber molecules known as isoprenes are cross-linked with each other by heating the rubber (in liquid form) with sulphur.

(Click to enlarge)

In the vulcanisation process, the sulphur that is added in allows some of the C-H bonds to be broken down and replaces the C-H bonds with C-S bonds. Vulcanisation cross-links the polyisoprene to one another. Every cross-link is a chain with about 8 sulphur atoms between 2 long chains of polyisoprene. These cross-linked molecules will then create a 3-dimensional network of rubber. The cross-linked molecules also makes sliding more difficult for the rubber molecules. Thus, the elasticity of the vulcanised rubber will maintain even after it is being stretched strongly and released.


We indeed have to thank Mr Charles Goodyear for discovering the vulcanised rubber. If there weren't vulcanised rubber, a lot of our rubber goods will wear off and lose their elasticity in no time. And we got to spend more money buying the same thing again and again. With the money saved, more money for shopping? :P It's still Mega Sales!!!

Just Keep Swimmingggg..

Just keep swimming. That was what Dory said in the movie Finding Nemo. In case you didn't know, this is Dory.


I have a thing for fishes. I love to keep them as pets. You know why? Cause they won't bother you when they need food like how a dog or a cat would come to you and giving you their 'Please-feed-me-I-am-hungry' face. Fishes will just swim and wait for you to feed them. However, many of us didn't realise that it's not easy to take care of fishes. It's not as simple as feeding them and letting them swim in the aquarium. You got to know about the water's pH, temperature and many more stuff as those little things will affect the fishes life!


The first thing would be the pH of the aquarium water. Different fishes have different pH requirement. Some needs to live in a more alkaline environment while some are able to live in a neutral environment. There are a few things that will affect the pH of the water. One of them is the chemical additives that are added directly into the water either to lower or raise the pH of the water. Besides that, shells and corals that are in the aquarium will also affect the pH of the water as it will increase the alkaline level of the water. Fishes are very sensitive to the water pH and they can die if they cannot adapt to the changes.

Related to the water pH would be the water hardness. Water hardness simply means the level of mineral in the water. Hard water has a lot of dissolved minerals in the water while soft water has very little or none dissolved minerals in the water. The most common mineral found in the water would be the calcium. The softness or hardness of the aquarium water normally depends on the tap water. The tap water on the other hand depends on the source of water. Hard water usually have higher pH value. The minerals in hard water will act as buffers which will reduce the amount of acid in water. Thus, the water will be more alkaline.

Besides that, ammonia, nitrites and nitrates that are parts of the breakdown of waste materials in the aquarium also affects the water of the aquarium. Some of these waste materials are harmful towards the fishes in the aquarium. Ammonia is released when wastes from fishes, plants and the food breaks down. Ammonia is very toxic and harmful to fishes and must be converted to nitrite by bacteria. Nitrite is also toxic and gives harm to the fishes and must be convereted into nitrate. Nitrate on the other hand is less toxic and they are normally taken up by plants to help the plants in their growth.

There are also chlorine and chloramine (combination of chlorine and ammonia) present in our water supplies. They are harmful towards the fishes and must be removed. Chlorine can be removed by dechlorinating agents such as a bottle of anti-chlorine that is sold in a pet store while chloramine can only be removed using a special chemical agents.



Here, this basically sums up what you need to know about the chemistry that happens in your aquarium. So if you have an aquarium at home and are not aware of this, please do read it up and take care of your fishes! They are such cute little creatures. :)

"Just Keep Swimmingggggg", sings Dory.

That Cute Guy With The Awesome Hair.

Yeah, you read the title. Most of us girls are attracted to guys' hairstyle. Okay, maybe not all girls but I admit I am. I tend to go crazy over guys with awesome and cool hairstyle.

Okay, I don't know who this guy is. But I know he's a Korean (I think) and I love his hair. I googled him anyway, so don't come bash me up for not knowing his name (in case he's some big star) LOL. Okay la, he's not that bad looking either. :P

This guy has a pretty cool hairstyle too! Hmm, a little bit like Goku's hair. No?

What makes their hair so nice you would ask? Hair gel of course.

Hmm, this hair gel has an interesting packaging. At least it doesn't look like the typical hair gel packaging la.

Hair gel is a jelly-like hairstyling product that is used to make the hair stiffer so you can style whatever hairstyle that you like. Hair gels are defined as a substancially dilute crosslinked systems which exhibits no flow when the gel is in a steady state. Hair gels are mostly in liquid form but yet they behave like solids due to the three dimensional crosslinked network within the liquid. The crosslinks between the liquid gives the hair gel its structure or in another word, hardness and also its stickiness.

What makes the guys' hair stand up then? Well, hair gels have cationic polymers as one of the ingredients. These positively charged polymers that will cause the hair gel to stretch and thus, making it more viscous. With hair gel applied to a person's hair, one can style whatever hairstyles that they desire because the stretched-out polymers can take up more space than a coiled polymer and thus the flow of solvent molecules around it is resisted. When these positively charged polymers also binds with the negatively charged amino acids on the surface of the keratin molecules of the hair, more complicated and complex formulae exist such as a copolymer of vinylpyrrolidone, methacrylamide and N-vinylimidazole. Once the hair gel is applied on the hair, the water evaporates off, leaving only the positively charged polymers and other ingredients which plays the role of holding the hair up. As hair gel is water-soluble, it can be removed when the person washes his hair.

So yeah, this sums up what you need to know about hair gel. But I heard from a friend, hair gel is not really good. Will make you botak wor! But then again, I'm not sure about that okay! :P

Colourful Prints!

Ever wonder what's behind those colourful prints on your CLEO magazines or let's say, your Biology or Chemistry text book?

Well, to get those colourful pictures and texts to be printed out on a piece of paper, you will definitely need printing inks! Even to write on a piece of paper with a pen, you'll need ink as well.

Inks are liquid containing pigments and also dyes and are used to colour the surface to produce an image or text. Inks are used in pens, quills, printers and many more printing machines. The colours of the printing inks are mostly given by the pigments rather than dyes which are commonly used in writing inks in pens. Pigments are any materials - be it black, white or fluorescent, that changes the appearance of the objects by selectively absorbing and reflecting certain lights. Pigments are the chief constituents of inks.

To differentiate the colour, the Colour Index System identified the pigments through their colour shade or hue and also the structural bond of the pigments. As the particle size becomes smaller, the colour intensity or the strength of the colour of a pigment will increase. The four main pigments used in inks are azo pigment, copper phthalocyanine blue, a typical quinacridone and also a diaryl pyrrolopyrrole. Besides these four, there are many kinds of different pigments. For example, the fluorescent pigments and also pearlescent pigments. Fluorescent pigments are often used in security inks to prevent forgery and also in giant billboards to attract the people’s attention. Pearlescent pigments on the other hand have the ability to reflect light the same way as natural pearls. A few pigments are mixed together to get a particular colour. For example, to obtain black colour, iron oxide – Fe3O4 and FeO, carbon and also logwood are mixed together. Blue colour on the other hand is a mixture of azure blue, cobalt blue and also Cu-phthalocyanine. Yellow colour is a mixture of cadmium yellow – CdS and CdZnS, ochres, curcuma yellow, chrome yellow and also disazodiarylide.

Structural formula of azo pigment, copper phthalocyanine blue, a typical quinacridone and diaryl pyrropyrrole.

During the formation of ink, surfactants are also added in as an ingredient of ink. Surfactants contain a hydrophobic hydrocarbon chain and also a polar group. Surfactants will help to lower the surface tension of the solvent in which the ink will dissolve. Surfactants act as stabilising agents for pigment dispersions. However, surfactants must be chosen wisely as surfactants that are not appropriate will cause ink foaming. Usually ionic surfactants are good in stabilising foams, and thus ionic surfactants are not included in an ink formation.

Now I guess you know a little bit more about pigments and inks. They are just something we cannot leave without in our daily life. Without inks and pigments, there will not be any books, magazines and also pens.

Ring Ring.

Hello all!

Please bear with this empty blog for a little while more. I spent too much time decorating it and too little time on the main item - the post!

So yeah, do drop a comment and your link as well. Let's link each other up alright? :)

Have a chemistry-fying day. (I know that word doesn't exist, but it exists now! In my Dictionary version J. HAHA!)