時差N小時:強力膠

If you've ever had a spill when working withSuperGlue? Then you know that the warning on theside of the tube is the absolute truth: SuperGlue willindeed bond skin in a matter of seconds.

你使用強力膠的時候，膠水溢出過嗎?你知道，管身上的提醒是絕對正確的：強力膠確實會在一秒內(nèi)將皮膚黏在一起。

You may have wondered, as you were trying topry your fingers apart, exactly why SuperGlue is sogood at bonding skin together. Why does it stickyour fingers together so quickly, but not stick to theinside of the tube?

當你試圖將手指分開時，也許會奇怪為什么強力膠會將手指粘得如此緊?為什么會如此快得黏住手指，卻不粘住管內(nèi)壁?

SuperGlue is the brand name of a type of glue made from a chemical called cyano-acrylatemonomer. Cyano-acrylate monomers have some properties that are especially interesting toglue manufacturers.

強力膠是由化學(xué)物質(zhì)氰基丙烯酸脂單體合成的一種膠水的商業(yè)名稱。氰基丙烯酸脂有一些特性，引起了膠水生產(chǎn)商的特殊興趣。

Monomers are small molecules that can join together to form long chemical chains. Thesechains, known as polymers, are pretty common in everyday life. For example, all plastics aremade from polymer chains of simple molecules, as are all synthetic fabrics.

單體是微小的分子，它們可結(jié)合形成化學(xué)長鏈。這些長鏈就是所謂的聚合物，在日常生活中很常見。例如，所有的塑料都是由簡單分子組成的聚合物制成，都是人造纖維。

What makes the cyano-acrylate monomer so special is the speed with which it formspolymers, and the fact that as it joins together, it tends to lock everything else around it intoplace as well. This rapid transformation from unsticky liquid monomer to sticky solidpolymer requires the presence of a little bit of water to get things started—whether it is in theair or on your skin. Without a little moisture, SuperGlue can't bond anything.

氰基丙烯酸脂單體的特別之處在于它形成聚合物的速度。單體在結(jié)合時，會將周圍每件事物牢牢鎖住。從無粘性的液態(tài)單體到有粘性的固態(tài)單體的快速轉(zhuǎn)化過程中，需要一些水分子來引發(fā)反應(yīng)——不論是空氣中的水分還是皮膚里的水分。沒有水分，強力膠不能將物質(zhì)黏在一起的。

This explains why the glue is so good at sticking fingers together. Our skin is naturallymoist, and this moisture is just what those monomers are waiting for. As long as no moisturegets into the tube, however, it will stay an unsticky liquid for a long time.

這就解釋了為什么強力膠會粘緊手指。我們的皮膚自然含水，這為這些單體結(jié)合創(chuàng)造了條件。只要管里沒有水分，它就以無粘性的液態(tài)形式存在，保存很長一段時間。