SUPPLEMENTARY TEXT:
Age of synthetics
With the tremendous amount of electricity available it would be possible to obtain great quantities of various metals, since there are vast sources of raw materials. However, the most typical materials of the future should be the products of organic synthesis, the so-called polymers, that is the various synthetic materials. These materials, developed by chemists in the past few decades, will occupy a very important place in industry, construction and the home. This does not mean that natural materials should lose their importance. On the contrary, if combined with synthetic materials, they might become even more valuable.
Synthetic plastics will often take the place of metals in machine-building and in many respects their properties are higher than those of metals. However, polymer materials would not be able to compare with metals as electricity and heat conductors, or with iron in respect to magnetic properties. On the contrary, ordinary polymers are better insulators of electricity, and some of them provide the best heat insulation. There is a possibility, however, of synthesizing polymers which are conductors, though weak, of electricity.
Scientists discovered that some polymers possess truly remarkable properties which in some respects are similar to the properties of iron, although in a much weaker form. So far industrial application has not yet been reached. But further research along such lines could result in the development of materials with sufficient electrical conducting and magnetic properties to make them important in automation, electronics and the creation of new types of transistors.
Dostları ilə paylaş: |
