​​? THE CHEMISTRY OF AN ELECTRIC GUITAR

? The electric guitar as we know it today owes a lot to the materials that make it up. In this graphic, we take a look at the different magnetic mixtures used in the electric guitar pickups, the alloys used in the frets and strings, and the chemicals used to give the guitar a glossy finish.

? GUITAR PICKUPS

? Guitar pickups are built around permanent magnets. Alnico magnets (made from aluminum, nickel, and cobalt) are most commonly used, but ceramic magnets (based on iron oxide with strontium or barium carbonate), samarium cobalt magnets, and neodymium magnets can all also be used.

? GUITAR FRETS

? Frets are commonly made from nickel-silver (an alloy of copper, nickel, and zinc), but stainless steel can sometimes be used (an alloy of iron, carbon, and chromium which prevents corrosion).

? GUITAR STRINGS

? Electric guitars require their strings to contain a magnetic metal. Usually, this is in the form of steel. The thicker strings (E, A & D) are usually wound with nickel wire. For some strings, a polymer coating is used to help to prevent corrosion.

? GUITAR FINISH

? Some guitars have a nitrocellulose lacquer finish, consisting of nitrocellulose mixed with other compounds and dissolved in a solvent. Polyurethane and polyester finishes are also common. They also tend to be more durable than nitrocellulose lacquer.
━━━━━━━━━━━
? @Serotonin ⚗️ |  @Education ?

​​? THE CHEMISTRY OF SILLY PUTTY

? Silly putty is an odd substance - it can be slowly stretched out, but snaps if pulled apart with greater force. it can be molded into shape, but bounces if rolled into a ball What's behind these strange properties? Here's a quick look at the chemical composition and explanation.

? WHAT IS IT MADE OF?

? The most important compound in silly putty is polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). This is the simplest member of the polymer family known as the silicones. PDMS is viscoelastic. This means that it acts like a viscous liquid and flows over long time scales. However, over short time scales (for example, being rolled into a ball and thrown at a hard surface), its behaviour is elastic, and it will bounce back. At high molecular weights the flexible polymer chains become loosely entangled, which contributes to PDHIS's miscarlosticity.

? HOW DOES IT WORK?

? The presence of PDMS alone, and its viscoelasticity. doesn't fuly explain how silly putty behaves. Another ingredient, boric acid, also makes a telling contribution. The boric acid helps to create 'crosslinks' between adjacent polymer chains. These help to give silly putty its putty-like nature, and also help explain its strange behaviour.The polydimethylsiloxanes in silly putty end in Si-OH groups. The boric acid reversibly reacts with these to form short-lived crosslinks between polymer chains. Slow deformation gives these crosslinks time to break and reform, allowing viscous flow, but rapid, forceful deformation does not, so elastic behaviour is instead seen.
━━━━━━━━━━━
? @Serotonin ⚗️ |  @Education ?