Plastic[Plastic?:Plastic sample cutting machine] is a polymer and is made up of repeating units of monomers. A polymer is defined as a chain of repeated simple monomers. Plastic can comprise of several elements such as, carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, chlorine, nitrogen, fluorine, silicon, sulfur and phosphorus. In general, different kinds of monomers are used to manufacture different types of plastic. Monomers of plastic are made of atoms, that are usually extracted from organic substances. Usually, monomers are derived from products like oil and sap of certain trees. But presently, plastic is mainly made of petrochemicals.
A wide range of products are obtained from petrochemicals and the process starts from processing crude oil. Fuel, gasoline, diesel and various types of lubricants are some of the important products derived from petrochemicals. Propane and ethane are two basic substances that can be found in oil, which are used to manufacture plastic. Other than petrochemical, corn and other biomass can also be used for making plastic. For making plastic from corn, corn kernels are first milled and then dextrose is added to it. It is then allowed to ferment and in this process, lactic acid and a type of plastic, known as polyactide polymer are obtained as byproducts.
