Flubber polymer with green food coloring added. The polymer is normally colorless.

Flubber (named from the film The Absent-Minded Professor), Glorp, Glurch, or Slime are common names referring to a rubbery polymer formed by cross-linking of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) with a boron compound. Flubber can be made from polyvinyl-acetate-based adhesives, such as Elmer's Glue, and borax as an elementary science education experiment.

Reaction

The gelation process entails formation of a borate ester that crosslinks the chains of the PVA. Borate esters form readily by condensation of hydroxyl groups and the B-OH groups.

Structure for borate ester that comprises crosslinking in "slime".

Properties

Flubber is a non-Newtonian fluid that flows under low stress, but breaks under higher stresses and pressures. This combination of fluid-like and solid-like properties makes it a Maxwell solid. Its behavior can also be described as being viscoplastic or gelatinous.


This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Flubber (material), which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.