Biopolymer Help! (1 Viewer)

[timeflies]

Our first assessment at school for Chemistry is a second-hand investigation presentation on dot point 2.6 -

"Use available evidence to gather and present data from secondary sources and analyse progress in the development and use of a named biopolymer. This analysis should name the specific enzyme(s) used or organism used to synthesise the material and an evaluation of the use or potential use of the polymer produced related to its properties"

I can guess that most people are going to be doing PHB or Biopol since they are easily found in textbooks/notes and am considering to go risky and go for cyclodextrin polymers. Not too sure if that is a good idea haha?
I have found information regarding them but it isn't that easy to research the exact properties and uses of the cyclodextrins (I need some simpler terms because all the information is way too complex on some of the websites I found) and so any help, information or sources for them will be really appreciated!

Thanks

 

[anomalousdecay]

Just use PHB or Biopol. I didn't do any and got screwed over for two to three marks in HSC.

Better to use the mainstream ones since the markers know most about them. Don't be a smart ass or else the markers for HSC may deduct marks.

 

[panda15]

I did poly-lactic acid, and found that quite easy. Theres plenty of stuff out there about it.

Also, just reading over the dot point, it doesn't really ask us to know how the biopolymer is produced, which is what we got asked about this year. Anyone else have a view on this?

 

[timeflies]

Just use PHB or Biopol. I didn't do any and got screwed over for two to three marks in HSC.

Better to use the mainstream ones since the markers know most about them. Don't be a smart ass or else the markers for HSC may deduct marks.

Sure for HSC questions I can memorise something about PHB or Biopol but for a school presentation? Is it good to go with what everybody else is doing?

 

[panda15]

Sure for HSC questions I can memorise something about PHB or Biopol but for a school presentation? Is it good to go with what everybody else is doing?

I did this dot point in an assignment as well, and my advice is to do the biopolymer that you will be using for your HSC exam. The point of this assignment is to make you research a biopolymer for you to use in the HSC. The assessment would be useless if you did one biopolymer for this assessment, then used another one during your exam.

 

[timeflies]

I did this dot point in an assignment as well, and my advice is to do the biopolymer that you will be using for your HSC exam. The point of this assignment is to make you research a biopolymer for you to use in the HSC. The assessment would be useless if you did one biopolymer for this assessment, then used another one during your exam.

Thats a fair point Okay then, I think its better off if I do chose PHB, Biopol or Polylactic Acid and just do it really well and thoroughly. Thanks guys!

 

[SuchSmallHands]

I did PLA and it was a bitch to do really thoroughly. It was interesting, but not easy, it took about 4-5 hours to do a pretty simple question set on it. I did get really good marks for it though, so if you're dedicated go for it. If you're looking for something easy, PHB is loads easier to find information on.

 

[anomalousdecay]

Thats a fair point Okay then, I think its better off if I do chose PHB, Biopol or Polylactic Acid and just do it really well and thoroughly. Thanks guys!

Yes. Do it thoroughly. Quality over quantity means that you need something that is confirmed by many sources, easily accessible by all markers, and clearly and concisely answering the specific question asked.

 

[anomalousdecay]

I did poly-lactic acid, and found that quite easy. Theres plenty of stuff out there about it.

Also, just reading over the dot point, it doesn't really ask us to know how the biopolymer is produced, which is what we got asked about this year. Anyone else have a view on this?

I stuffed that up when doing PHB. I basically summarised that it was an addition polymer made from sugars, even though it is actually condensation polymerised, similarly to glucose. Lost 2/3 marks out of 5 for that question. :'(.

I don't remember the second part of the 8-marker but I think I would have lost 2 marks for that.

 

[panda15]

I stuffed that up when doing PHB. I basically summarised that it was an addition polymer made from sugars, even though it is actually condensation polymerised, similarly to glucose. Lost 2/3 marks out of 5 for that question. :'(.

I don't remember the second part of the 8-marker but I think I would have lost 2 marks for that.

I stuffed up the polyethylene part. I wrote about how it's obtained from cellulose rather than petrochemicals. Dem stupid exam errors
And I just wrote that lactic acid can just undergo condensation polymerisation to form PLA. I think it was an extremely unfair question because I don't think the actual process of polymerising a biopolymer is in the syllabus. You should only have had to know the progress in the production, which is what the dot point actually asked.

 

[ebbygoo]

What about PLA? You could talk about using human farms to extract it from athletes.










I joke.

 

[Franco Diaz Lichem]

I did cellulose, it is a very easy one to remember and plus, there is no point being a smart ass doing something hard, when you can do something easier and still get the marks.

Doing something hard is to some extent risky because you never know, some markers might not know that and they may give you less marks.

Just do one of these PHB or Biopol or cellulose, don't worry what your class is doing, it all dependents if you answered the dot-point correctly to get the marks,

 

[anomalousdecay]

I did cellulose, it is a very easy one to remember and plus, there is no point being a smart ass doing something hard, when you can do something easier and still get the marks.

Doing something hard is to some extent risky because you never know, some markers might not know that and they may give you less marks.

Just do one of these PHB or Biopol or cellulose, don't worry what your class is doing, it all dependents if you answered the dot-point correctly to get the marks,

Basically re-inforcing what I told OP.

 

[anomalousdecay]

I stuffed up the polyethylene part. I wrote about how it's obtained from cellulose rather than petrochemicals. Dem stupid exam errors
And I just wrote that lactic acid can just undergo condensation polymerisation to form PLA. I think it was an extremely unfair question because I don't think the actual process of polymerising a biopolymer is in the syllabus. You should only have had to know the progress in the production, which is what the dot point actually asked.

The first part is a silly error. The second part is a bit of a curve-ball as it "stretches" the syllabus. Its only two or three marks though for the second part. I would say two because in my answer, I split the diagram to include both HDPE and LDPE, just using different catalysts, meaning that the first part and an attempt at the second would three marks.