Temperature Experiments with the Scrub Daddy Sponge

In a previous post, I learned that a Scrub Daddy sponge is mainly comprised of a polymer called polycaprolactone.¹ I have continued to gather information on polycaprolactone and also to experiment with Scrub Daddy sponges. For example, I learned that the glass transition temperature of polycaprolactone is 213 K (-60^oC or -76^oF).² The glass transition temperature,T_g, is the temperature above which a polymer transforms from a brittle, glassy state to a flexible, elastic state. Thus, it would make sense if a Scrub Daddy sponge could be cooled below its T_g when immersed in liquid nitrogen, which is at 77 K (-196^oC or -321^oF) – well below T_g for polycaprolactone. I decided to cool a Scrub Daddy in liquid nitrogen and subsequently hit it with a hammer to find out:

The Scrub Daddy certainly displayed brittle, glassy characteristics when cooled to 77K! After doing this experiment, I noticed that the temperature of dry ice, 196 K (-78.5^oC or -109^oF), is below T_g for polycaprolactone. This made me wonder if a Scrub Daddy would shatter when struck with a hammer after being cooled using dry ice. If this experiment worked, I figured it might give experimenters who have access to dry ice a cool way (pun intended) to shatter items without requiring the use of liquid nitrogen, which is often difficult to obtain. In the video below, you can see what I found out:

As you can see, the Scrub Daddy did shatter when struck with a hammer after being cooled in dry ice! So if you don’t have access to liquid nitrogen, you can still demonstrate the shattering of a cooled item using a Scrub Daddy, dry ice, and a hammer.³

Let me know if you and your students try some experiments with the Scrub Daddy sponge. Also, I would be interested to hear if anyone learns of any other materials that can easily be shattered by striking with a hammer after cooling in dry ice.

Happy experimenting!

References and notes:

1. https://www.chemedx.org/blog/scrub-daddy-science

2. Progress in Polymer Science, 2010, 35, 1217-1256.

3. Notice that the Scrub Daddy was cooled in dry ice only, and not a mixture of dry ice and alcohol (or acetone). Striking the Scrub Daddy after cooling in such mixtures would likely cause organic solvents to be splattered about, causing an unnecessary hazard.