Polyvinyl Alcohol.

For this assignment was have to experiment with the chemical compound of Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA) A colourless, water-soluble synthetic resin. 
To see how it worked I wanted to see its featuers in action:

Polyvinyl Alcohol

First I wanted to see how long it took for PVA to dissolve in water. I cut a small piece (less then 1cm squared) and placed it into a small dish of distilled water, I thought it wouldn't take very long for the reaction to occur, but in the first five minutes nothing happened I even tried moving the water around to make the reaction work faster but it still didn't dissolve, but when touching it, it was no longer smooth and hard but more flexible and slightly sticky and gluey. I then left it for three hours and came bak and it had finally dissolved and made the water no longer clear but a milky colour and then over night the water then separated and the PVA had fallen to the bottom and settled. 

textuer when reacted with water

In water

over night the PVA had separated from the water

The next Idea I wanted to look in to was to see if I could get the PVA to work into a paste by only using a little about of water. After time the PVA did dissolve into the limited amount of water making it  into a sticky and gluey texture but it still held its form and was not forming a paste. Over night the water  evaporated from the PVA resulting in the PVA that had dissolved into the water to harden back into the solid state, but in a thiner form. I found this pro sees rather interesting as you could use this concept to make the PVA into different forms and thicknesses by evaporating the water. 

in limited water

over night after water had evaporated

Next I wanted to see if PVA was soluble in other liquids, the two I tried was oil and salt water, I put the same sized piece of PVA that I put into the water to see if in the same time frame would anything happen. I have had the PVA in the solutions for three days now and no reaction has started to occur. this then proves that PVA is not soluble in salt water or oil. this could help in my design as I know how to prevent the reaction if I don't want the reaction to happen for some reason.  

PVA in oil

PVA in salt water

I had also heard that PVA burns like paper, I would of really liked to try this but I don't own matches or a lighter, but I think it was some good inside to know that PVA is flammable. When I get my hands on a lighter I will give it a try.