Edit: please explain like I am actually five.
In: 2979
It’s because of its ability to have stuff not stick to it. Sticky lubricants aren’t very useful, and to minimize friction (and thus resistance) you want a costing that sticks as little as possible. This makes silicone an ideal choice for both applications, because both rely on the substances lack of stickiness.
Edit:Oooh, I misread the original question as “non-stick” not “non-slip”, my apologies! Silicone the liquid spray is differs slightly from silicone the solid in composition, as well as having some additives. For something to be a liquid the molecules it’s composed of need to be able to slide past each other, and the less resistance there is to the molecules moving the lower viscosity and better lubricant the liquid is. Silicone the liquid spray has traditional oils added to it as well, to help the silicone molecules to glade past each other easily. Additionally the silicone is polymerized into smaller chains in the liquid than you find in the solid form. This makes it a wonderful lubricant.
Silicone the solid makes a great non-slip surface because it’s slightly soft and able to mold into the little surface imperfections of a solid, the cracks and crevices we can’t see with our eyes, allowing the silicone to grip the surface better. This is the same reason rubber makes a high traction non-slip surface.
Silicone, like any plastic, is a polymer. This means it is composed of the same small molecule (called a monomer) repeated over and over and over again. Silicone the solid exhibits a property called cross-linking, whereby one monomer forms bonds not just to the molecule in front of and behind it in the chain (that’s the definition of a polymer) but also to the sections next to it. Imagine if you had a pile of a chain, and you started welding links to the link next to them even if that link was far separated when you stretch the chain out. It’s these crosslinks that make silicone the solid a solid, and give it its non-stick properties
Latest Answers