Investigation of cond.&insul.

 

Noah Nishihara Homegroup 909                                                               Tuesday, 20 October2015

Investigation of Conductors and Insulators

Aim

To test whether the twenty different chosen materials are conductors or insulators (non-conductors) of electricity.

Hypothesis: All plastics are good insulators of 2 volt electricity.

Materials and equipment

·        Power pack

·        Conductivity Kit (Maximum 2.5 V)

·        Alligator Clips

·        Banana Clips

·        Various materials (total of twenty) for testing

·        Black wires and red wires

Method

1.     Plug the cord of the Power pack into the wall socket and switch the socket on.

2.     Connect wires and the Conductivity Kit correctly to the Power pack with the voltage at 2 Volts. Red wires should be connected to the red slot and black wires should be connected to the black slot. It must be a direct current.

3.     Check that the conductivity kit works by placing it on some sort of metal or by connecting the two metal pieces of it.

4.     Test various materials safely by connecting the Conductivity Kit and the material being tested. The differences in conductivity can be seen by the brightness of the light.

5.     Tick off the materials that conduct electricity and leave those that do not.

6.     Pack up all equipment.

Results

ü  Graphite spare leads

Polyethylene PE (Lid of spare leads case)

ü  Various coins

Polypropylene PP (Plastic covering of products)

Urea resin (Urea-formaldehyde)

Plastic of mechanical pencil (mix of R-PC, TPEE etc.)

Fire-resistant ABS resin

Biodegradable Plastics (Target’s Biodegradable Bag)

A piece of paper

ü  Zinc 1 and 2

Recycled poly (ethyleneterephthalate) PET

ü  Iron nail 1 and 2

Polyethylene(or PVC) of Australian cling wraps

Rubber tubing

Eraser (PVC free)

ü  Copper 1 and 2

Acrylic plastic PMMAPoly(methyl methacrylate) of the transparent Japanese ruler (Perspex)

ü  Paperclips (steel wire)

Polystyrene PS (Case part of spare lead case)

Chalk

ü  Aluminium foil

ü  Lead

Synthetic fibre (Piece of string)

Wood

ü  Carbon

 

 

Discussion

The results were as I expected. Improvements to this experiment include the use of ammeters. Ammeters would have shown how exactly the materials conducted electricity. The conductivity kit could be exchanged for a bulb with a higher voltage capacity. This would yield more accurate results. We kept the voltage the same (at 2 volts). We changed the objects connected between the alligator clips conductivity kit. The variables were my list of materials. The temperature of the room was constant.

Conductors have little resistance, and electricity passes through it easily. The metal that has the least electric resistance is silver, followed by copper and gold. On the periodic table, the elements on the left side are better conductors than those on the right as they have fewer electrons in their valence shell.

Insulators have high electrical resistance and are poor conductors of electricity. Commonly used insulators include most types of plastics, rubber, wood, glass and porcelain (including clay and quartz). Insulators hold onto their existing electrons or attract electrons thereby limiting the flow of electrons. The plastics that I tested were all insulators of 2 volt DC electricity. Some plastics are better insulators than others when the voltage or current increases. Commercial and industrial products all have to be made out of strong plastics that can resist long periods of heat and electricity. Bakelite used to be in all products to do with electricity. Now it has been replaced by cheaper, easier, colourful and somewhat unsafe plastics. Plastics such as Bakelite take a lot of time to decompose and so are not suited to widespread usage. However, safety during prolonged usage is required, so strong plastics will probably never stop being manufactured. Correct application of plastics in everyday life is required.Thermoplastics such as Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) will melt from fire. Thermosetting plastics do not melt, therefore they are safer. ABS is also damaged by sunlight.

Conductivity of a material can change when factors/variables change. The atomic qualities of the material, the length and amount of material as well as the temperature of the material will all affect conductivity. We tried to test materials of a similar size and made sure that all the other factors were consistent.

Conclusion

Good conductors are usually various metal types which are on the left side of the periodic table. Most types of plastics, rubber and wood are insulators. Further investigation with 220-240 V electricity may reveal the plastics that cannot insulate as much as some others do.

Notes

（Ammeters cannot be set up on a parallel circuit or directly with the power source; it can only be connected in a series circuit.）

 

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