Plastics could see a second life as biodegradable surfactants chemeurope.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from chemeurope.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Apr 19, 2021 07:00 AM EDT
Scientists at Ames Laboratory s Institute for Cooperative Upcycling of Plastics (iCOUP) have discovered a chemical method that turns recycled plastics into biodegradable, use chemicals that can be used as surfactants and detergents in a variety of applications. Plastics may have more sustainable and cost-effective lifecycles as a result of this process.
(Photo : Magda Ehlers)
The researchers focused their efforts on deconstructing polyolefins, which account for more than half of all recycled plastics and are used virtually every product imaginable, including toys, food packaging, piping systems, water bottles, clothes, shoes, vehicles, and furniture. You might call plastics, especially polyolefins, too successful, said iCOUP Director Aaron Sadow. They are good for all of the applications that we need them for - solid, lightweight, thermally stable, chemically resistant - but the issue arises when we no longer use them.
New Process to Create More Sustainable, Economically Viable Lifecycles for Plastics
Written by AZoCleantechApr 16 2021
A new chemical process synthesizes useful, biodegradable chemicals, which can be used as detergents and surfactants in a wide variety of applications, from disposed plastics.
Long hydrocarbon chains of polymers are broken into shorter units with the introduction of aluminum end groups. Image Credit: AMES Laboratory.
The process, which was discovered by researchers from the Institute for Cooperative Upcycling of Plastics (iCOUP), an Energy Frontier Research Center led by Ames Laboratory, has the ability to make more sustainable and economically beneficial lifecycles for plastics.
The focus of the study was to disintegrate polyolefins, which constitute over half of all disposed plastics and consists of almost every kind of product that can be imagined pipe systems, food packaging, toys, fabrics, water bottles, furniture, cars and shoes.
E-Mail
IMAGE: Long hydrocarbon chains of polymers are broken into shorter units with the introduction of aluminum end groups. view more
Credit: U.S. Department of Energy, Ames Laboratory
Scientists at the Institute for Cooperative Upcycling of Plastics (iCOUP), an Energy Frontier Research Center led by Ames Laboratory, have discovered a chemical process that provides biodegradable, valuable chemicals, which are used as surfactants and detergents in a range of applications, from discarded plastics. The process has the potential to create more sustainable and economically favorable lifecycles for plastics.
The researchers targeted their work on the deconstruction of polyolefins, which represents more than half of all discarded plastics, and includes nearly every kind of product imaginable toys, food packaging, pipe systems, water bottles, fabrics, shoes, cars, and furniture.
Better understanding plastics underlying chemistry may revolutionize how we use these ubiquitous materials
DOE/US Department of Energy
Too much natural gas. A small adjustment to an experiment. These ingredients came together to produce one of the most influential materials ever invented.
Researchers at Berkeley Lab s Molecular Foundry user facility developed a polymer that they can break down and recreate. It could lead to cyclical plastics that can be recycled over and over again.
Image courtesy of Marilyn Chung/Berkeley Lab
In the wake of World War II, companies were left with excess fossil fuels with no war to consume them. Looking to turn extra natural gas into liquid fuel, the Philips Petroleum Company hired chemists J. Paul Hogan and Robert L. Banks. As they experimented with turning natural gas into gasoline, they tweaked their catalyst - a material used to speed up chemical reactions. They expected it would make a liquid. Instead, the process produced something enti