chemistry

Silastic

Silastic is a chemistry topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Silastic rather than just read about it. In short: Silastic (a portmanteau of 'silicone' and 'plastic') is a trademark registered in 1948 by Dow Corning Corporation for flexible, inert silicone elastomer. Composition The Silastic trademark refers to silicone elastomers, silicone tubing and some cross-linked polydimethylsiloxane materials manufactured by Dow Corning, the owner of the global trademark.

Key takeaways

Silastic belongs to chemistry; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Silastic to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Silastic from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Silastic (a portmanteau of 'silicone' and 'plastic') is a trademark registered in 1948 by Dow Corning Corporation for flexible, inert silicone elastomer.

Composition The Silastic trademark refers to silicone elastomers, silicone tubing and some cross-linked polydimethylsiloxane materials manufactured by Dow Corning, the owner of the global trademark.

Applications Silastic-brand silicone elastomers have a range of applications. In the automotive industry they are used for making gaskets, spark plug boots, hoses and other components that must operate over a broad temperature range and resist oil and coolants. The elastomers are widely used in the architectural, aerospace, electronic, food and beverage, textile, and transportation industries for molding, coating, adhesion and sealing. Due to their inert nature, medical-grade Silastic-brand silicone elastomers are important materials in numerous medical and pharmaceutical devices including catheters, pacemaker leads, tubing, wound dressings, silos for abdominal wall defects, and nasolacrimal duct obstruction. These medical-grade elastomers are also used in the manufacture of hyper-realistic masks, where they perfectly mimic the texture of human skin and follow all facial movements and expressions.

References

External links Dow Corning Corporation

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Silastic

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Silastic claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In chemistry, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Silastic before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Silastic ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Silastic

In research: Silastic appears in chemistry research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Silastic in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Silastic is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Brand name materials, Dow Chemical Company, Elastomers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Silastic outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Silastic in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Silastic means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Silastic out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Silastic in simple terms?

Silastic (a portmanteau of 'silicone' and 'plastic') is a trademark registered in 1948 by Dow Corning Corporation for flexible, inert silicone elastomer. Composition The Silastic trademark refers to silicone elastomers, silicone tubing and some cross-linked polydimethylsiloxane materials manufactur…

Why does Silastic matter?

Because it connects several chemistry ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Silastic?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Silastic.