Maya Ellison
Water is considered a plasticizer because it can act as a softening agent, reducing brittleness and increasing flexibility in various materials. This effect is particularly notable in hydrophilic food components and biological materials, where water enhances molecular mobility and decreases glass transition temperatures (Tg). In construction, water acts as a plasticizer in concrete mixtures, improving workability and strength. However, water is not always preferred as a plasticizer due to its tendency to evaporate easily during drying.
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What You'll Learn
Water is a plasticizer for biological and organic hydrophilic materials
The degree or extent to which a molecule or surface attracts water is known as its hydrophilicity. Hydrophilicity is influenced by the number of sites and the structure and density of the interphase area. It is measured using a contact angle, which is the angle between the surface and the edge of a water droplet. A hydrophilic surface has a contact angle of less than 90 degrees, while a hydrophobic surface has an angle of more than 90 degrees.
At low moisture contents, water can act as a plasticizer, providing mechanical softness and molecular mobility upon hydration. Water can create hydrogen bonds with hydrophilic parts of a polymer, decreasing the associated free volume. This can be applied to the development of plant-based alternatives to meat and dairy, as protein-water interactions govern protein conformation, solubility, and stability.
Hydrophilic materials are used in a wide range of applications. For example, in power plants, hydrophilic surfaces can prevent overheating by maximising contact with water. In another example, hydrophilic coatings with hydrogen bonding sites allow the formation of tightly adherent layers of water with lubricity in biological systems. Hydrophilic coatings are also used in drug delivery systems, tissue repair, and cosmetics.
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Water reduces viscosity and increases molecular mobility
Water is considered a plasticizer because it reduces viscosity and increases molecular mobility.
Plasticizers are low-volatility liquid or solid substances added to raw polymers to improve their flexibility, make them easier to shape and mould, and reduce friction on their surface. They are commonly added to plastics such as PVC, facilitating the handling of the raw material during fabrication and meeting the demands of the end product's application.
Water, as a plasticizer, affects the glass-to-rubber transition temperatures (Tg) of many synthetic and natural amorphous polymers, particularly at low moisture contents. The addition of water decreases viscosity upon hydration and increases molecular mobility, resulting in a lower glass-transition temperature Tg. The higher the water content, the lower the Tg. This is because the glass transition temperature of larger organic molecules is usually higher than that of water, and the mobility of large molecules is lower than that of water.
Water is the most important plasticizer of biological and organic hydrophilic materials, which exhibit enhanced mechanical softness and molecular mobility upon hydration. It is also the most important plasticizer for hydrophilic food components.
In concrete technology, plasticizers and superplasticizers are called high-range water reducers. They are added to concrete mixtures to improve workability and strength. The strength of concrete is inversely proportional to the amount of water added. Less water is added to produce stronger concrete, which makes the mixture less workable and difficult to mix, necessitating the use of plasticizers.
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Water is a plasticizer for concrete and stucco
In concrete technology, plasticizers and superplasticizers are called high-range water reducers. They are added to concrete mixtures to improve workability and strength. The strength of concrete is inversely proportional to the amount of water added, i.e., the water-cement ratio. To produce stronger concrete, less water is added, which makes the mixture less workable and difficult to mix, requiring the use of plasticizers. Plasticizers are also used when pozzolanic ash is added to concrete to improve strength. This mixing ratio method is especially popular when producing high-strength concrete and fiber-reinforced concrete. Adding 1-2% plasticizer per unit weight of cement is usually sufficient.
Similarly, plasticizers can be added to wallboard stucco mixtures to improve workability. To reduce the energy consumed in drying wallboard, less water is added, making the gypsum mixture very unworkable and difficult to mix. Plasticizers, water reducers, or dispersants are then used to improve the workability of the mixture.
At low moisture contents, water can act as a plasticizer, providing mechanical softness and molecular mobility upon hydration.
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Water is a plasticizer for food components
Food components include nutrients such as fats, carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins, and minerals. Water is considered a plasticizer for these food components because it can affect their physical and chemical properties. For example, hydration mediated by water can govern protein conformation, solubility, and stability through mediating long-range interactions between polar and charged amino acids. This is especially important for large and multidomain protein molecules and aggregates found in PPI, which are used to develop plant-based analogues including dairy and meat alternatives.
Additionally, the amount of water added to a concrete mixture can affect its strength, with a lower water-to-cement ratio resulting in stronger concrete. Plasticizers are often added to concrete mixtures to improve their workability and strength. This is because concrete mixtures with less water are more difficult to work with and mix, so plasticizers are added to improve their flow characteristics and make them easier to handle during fabrication.
Furthermore, water plays a crucial role in the human body's absorption of certain vitamins. Vitamins A, D, E, and K are fat-soluble vitamins that require the presence of fats in the body for absorption. On the other hand, the rest of the vitamins are water-soluble, meaning they require the presence of water for absorption.
Overall, water is considered a plasticizer for food components due to its ability to affect the physical and chemical properties of various nutrients, as well as its role in the workability and strength of concrete mixtures and the absorption of vitamins in the human body.
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Water's plasticizing effect on glass-forming solutions is ubiquitous
Water is considered a plasticizer because it can act as a plasticiser at low moisture contents, providing mechanical softness and molecular mobility upon hydration. A plasticizer is a substance added to a material to make it softer, more flexible, and easier to handle during manufacture.
Glass formation is the process of creating an amorphous material with limited atomic order, known as a glass, through controlled crystallization. The process involves the transformation of glass into glass-ceramics, which offers a wide range of functionalities for various applications. Almost any material can form a glass given the right experimental conditions.
The basic ingredients for glass formation are a network former, intermediate, and network modifier. Glass formation occurs at very high temperatures, normally above 1000 °C. The high-temperature processing of individual oxides to create molten glass seems incompatible with temperature-sensitive drugs, as no drugs can survive at such high temperatures. However, specific compositions of glasses can be prepared so that they can be treated at certain temperatures to induce distinct regions of phase separation within the bulk material.
Water plays a central role in glass formation. In the hydroxylation technique, vapours of silicon tetrachloride (SiCl4) are reacted at high temperatures with steam (H2O), causing a “soot” of silica (SiO2) to deposit on cooler substrates. The soot is then sintered to form dense glass. In the sol-gel method, alcoholic solutions of organometallic precursors are hydrolyzed with water at low temperatures while stirring vigorously. Hydrolysis promotes chelation, or the formation of network-type atomic connections, until the mass gels. The gel is then dried to remove excess alcohol and water and is subsequently sintered to form dense glass.
Water is also used in other glass-forming processes. Solid glass beads and microspheres used in blast cleaners, shot peening, and reflective paints are made by passing finely fritted glass through a hot flame. In another process, a solution of an alkoxide in alcohol is stirred into a liquid dispersant, causing the solution to break up into small droplets. Water-based polyethylene emulsions are also used to make the surface of hot containers more lubricious.
In conclusion, water's plasticizing effect on glass-forming solutions is indeed ubiquitous. Water is used in multiple processes to create glass and plays a key role in determining the properties of glass.
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Frequently asked questions
A plasticizer is a substance added to a material to increase its plasticity, decrease its viscosity, and/or decrease friction during its handling in manufacture.
Water can act as a plasticizer by decreasing the viscosity of a substance upon hydration, leading to an increase in molecular mobility and a decrease in the glass transition temperature.
Water is considered a plasticizer because it is the most ubiquitous plasticizer in our world, affecting the glass-to-rubber transition temperatures (Tg) of many synthetic and natural amorphous polymers.
Water is commonly used as a plasticizer in the food and pharmaceutical industries. For example, it serves to soften or make hydrophilic food components less brittle. In pharmaceuticals, it can be used to develop plant-based alternatives.
Some other common plasticizers include phthalates, fatty acid esters, glycerol, polyethylene glycol, propylene glycol, xylitol, and sorbitol.
