Using materials (chemistry only)

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Question 16

Medium

Biodegradable polymers are used to produce protective mulch sheets for agricultural crops to control soil temperature and retain moisture.

Table 1 shows some properties of two biodegradable polymers.

Table 1

Property	Polymer X	Polymer Y
Density in $g/cm3\text{g/cm}^3$	1.25	1.50
Tensile strength	High	Low
Water absorption	High	Low

An agricultural mulch sheet needs to be lightweight (to ease installation), durable (to resist tearing under wind load), and water-resistant (to prevent soil drying by water absorption).

Based on Table 1, decide which polymer (Polymer X or Polymer Y) is best for each of the following properties of a mulch sheet:

Density (to make it lightweight)
Tensile strength (to make it durable/tear-resistant)
Water absorption (to prevent drying)

[3]

A mulch sheet of a specific size made from Polymer Y has a mass of 4.8 kg. Calculate the mass of a sheet of the exact same dimensions made from Polymer X.

Use the information in Table 1 and the equation:

\text{mass of Polymer X sheet} = \frac{\text{density of Polymer X}}{\text{density of Polymer Y}} \times \text{mass of Polymer Y sheet}

[3]

Using materials (chemistry only)

Question 16

Table 1

Using materials (chemistry only) Questions

Using materials (chemistry only)

Question 16

Table 1

Using materials (chemistry only) Questions