I have an old turntable in my attic. And I still have my old LP records, including some real classics from the 80s, and at least one especially-expensive high-quality pressed album. It's Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here. Oh, and I have an EP of Kraftwerk's Tour de France. Great stuff, though I haven't played them for years.
Vinyl records are pressed PVC, or polyvinyl chloride. PVC is a polymer made from a monomer called vinyl chloride, which has the formula CH2CHCl. The alkene polymerizes by an acid-catalyzed addition mechanism to produce long chains. The "vinyl" part of the name is straight from the chemist's lexicon: vinyl means the chlorine is directly connected to the sp2-hybridized carbon.
PVC is manufactured in huge quantities and is the subject of a certain amount of controversy--because of hazards associated with the toxic, carcinogenic monomer it is made from, and also because PVC plastics are often made soft ("plasticized") using phthalates, which sometimes leach from the finished materials and have their own toxicity hazards.
Those of you who are O-chemmers will get the chance to learn more about PVC at the start of Winter term.
No comments:
Post a Comment