WHAT IS POLYCARBONATE?
A. Polycarbonate is supplied in sheets which are light weight. They are constructed of a two, three or four tier channel. This supplies an insulating effect which keeps the temperature more even and provides better growing conditions for your plants. They come in different thickness (4mm, 6mm,8 mm, etc.).
Polycarbonate is a versatile, tough plastic used for a variety of applications, from bulletproof windows to compact disks (CDs). The main advantage of polycarbonate over other types of plastic is unbeatable strength combined with light weight. While acrylic is 17% stronger than glass, polycarbonate is nearly unbreakable. Bulletproof windows and enclosures as seen inside banks or at drive-throughs are often made of polycarbonate. Add to this the advantage that polycarbonate is just one-third the weight of acrylic, or one-sixth as heavy as glass, and the only drawback is that it is more expensive than either acrylic or glass. Compact disks and digital versatile discs (DVDs) are perhaps the most readily recognized examples of polycarbonate. If you’ve ever archived files on a writable CD, then later tried to break it before throwing it away, you know just how tough polycarbonate can be! Clear polycarbonate is used to make eyeglasses because of its excellent transparency, durability, and hi
Polycarbonate plastic (#7) is used to make a wide variety of products, including CDs, DVDs, sunglass and eyeglass lenses, baby bottles, computer parts, and drinking bottles (both single use and reusable). Because it is clear, highly resistant to impact, and lightweight, it has been widely used in food storage containers. A major health concern with polycarbonate used in bottles (baby bottles, water bottles and other drinking bottles) and food storage containers is that they release BPA when heated. Some polycarbonate may be recycled, but in general such programs are limited. As with all plastics, polycarbonate may only be “downcycled”, rather than “recycled”, once before going to a landfill.
Polycarbonates are long-chain linear polyesters of carbonic acid and dihydric phenols, such as bisphenol A. What are the properties of polycarbonate? Before starting to list properties of polycarbonate, it is probably wise to explain why the properties are the way they are. First, the technical stuff. Take a look at the above diagram. In it, you will see two six-sided structures. These are called phenyl groups. You will also see two groups identified by the label CH3. These are methyl groups. The presence of the phenyl groups on the molecular chain and the two methyl side groups contribute to molecular stiffness in the polycarbonate. This stiffness has a large effect on the properties of polycarbonate. First, attraction between of the phenyl groups between different molecules contributes to a lack of mobility of the individual molecules. This results in good thermal resistance but relatively high viscosity (i.e., low melt flow) during processing. The inflexibility and the lack of mobil
The Stuff They Use For The Lenses In Sunglasses, Safety Glasses And Goggles Polycarbonates are a particular group of thermoplastics. They are easily worked, molded, and thermoformed; as such, these plastics are very widely used in modern manufacturing. They are called polycarbonates because they are polymers having functional groups linked together by carbonate groups (-O-(C=O)-O-) in a long molecular chain. Also carbon monoxide was used as a C1-synthon on an industrial scale to produce diphenyl carbonate, being later trans-esterificated with a diphenolic derivative affording poly(aromatic carbonate)s. Taking into consideration the C1-synthon we can divide polycarbonates into poly(aromatic carbonate)s and poly(aliphatic carbonate)s. The second one, poly(aliphatic carbonate)s are a product of the reaction of carbon dioxide with epoxides, what owing to the thermodynamical stability of carbon dioxide requires the use of catalyst. The working systems are based on porphyrins, alkoxides, car
