usatoday24
During most of human existence, finding or producing food with which to sustain our population. Agrarian development millennia have allowed us to reach the point where humanity does not have to face the problem of lack of livelihood, but we have reached a point where the problem is at the other end of the chain: the problem of the waste.
A new plastic. To solve it, or at least to relieve it, a team of researchers has created a new type of plastic. According to its developers, the new material is of great durability but can also be easily recycled.
Recyclable alternative. This new plastic is presented as an alternative to conventional thermosye plastics. These materials stand out for their durability and are widespread in the industry: we can see them in many objects, from wheels to balls to play bowling.
The characteristic that makes these plastics so resistant is their structure in which the reticulated polymers. In his secret is his disadvantage and this structure makes them impossible to recycle them, Explain the team responsible for the new plastic material.
Double polymerization. The process of creating the new plastic part of the dihydrofurano (DHF), a circular monomer with double bond that can be created from biological materials, The team points out. From this monomer two polymerization processes begin, the second process being the result in a reticulated polymer.
In the first process the circular structures of the DHF are cut and then link them to each other, creating a flexible and soft polymer in addition to recyclable and degradable in acid, explains the equipment. This process is part of the intact monomer
In the second polymerization, these circular monomers do not open and then intertwine, but thanks to their double bond they join between them and next to the polymer resulting from the first process, everything without changing their circular structure to a linear. This second stage is what hardens the final material.
A more sustainable process. The resulting polymer is recyclable using heat and can be degraded naturally in the environment. In addition, the resulting material can be altered through variables in the process such as time using the reaction or number of catalysts used, which leaves a wide range of possible materials result of the same reaction. Altering the light in the process, for example we can choose between a more difficult or more flexible resulting plastic.
“The whole process, since the creation of reuse, is more ecological than with current materials,” explained in a press release Reagan Dreiling, a member of the team that developed the new material. The researcher and the rest of the team presented the details of the development of the new material In an article In the magazine Nature.
Image | Sigmund
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings