Scientists develop 'environmentally friendly' plastic that dissolves in sea water

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ComprehensiveCamp490 on December 25th, 2024 at 08:31 UTC »

I figured an important thing to know that wasn't mentioned here was the cost/scale possible, and I couldn't find anything more concrete than this.

To present a viable alternative to current plastics, any new materials need to be manufactured at an industrial scale. “Our plastics can be manufactured in water without heating,” said Aida. “We believe that our synthetic process can be scaled up easily.”

In addition, one of the building blocks is available at a very low price, and the other one can be synthesized in a one-step reaction from commercial chemicals, which could contribute to making this type of material cost-competitive with conventional plastics.

Sounds pretty promising if as good as claimed

Gamer_Koraq on December 25th, 2024 at 05:39 UTC »

Honestly, this sounds pretty exciting. I'm really curious to find out more about the production, costs, etc.

Source with more information: https://phys.org/news/2024-11-durable-supramolecular-plastic-fully-ocean.html

Researchers led by Takuzo Aida at the RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science (CEMS) have developed a new durable plastic that won't pollute our oceans. The new material is as strong as conventional plastics and biodegradable, but what makes it special is that it breaks down in seawater.

...

The new plastics are non-toxic and non-flammable—meaning no CO2 emissions—and can be reshaped at temperatures above 120°C like other thermoplastics. By testing different types of guanidinium sulfates, the team was able to generate plastics that had varying hardnesses and tensile strengths, all comparable or better than conventional plastics. This means that the new type of plastic can be customized for need; hard scratch-resistant plastics, rubber silicone-like plastics, strong weight-bearing plastics, or low tensile flexible plastics are all possible.

Lastly, the researchers investigated the new plastic's recyclability and biodegradability. After dissolving the initial new plastic in salt water, they were able to recover 91% of the hexametaphosphate and 82% of the guanidinium as powders, indicating that recycling is easy and efficient. In soil, sheets of the new plastic degraded completely over the course of 10 days, supplying the soil with phosphorous and nitrogen similar to a fertilizer.

"With this new material, we have created a new family of plastics that are strong, stable, recyclable, can serve multiple functions, and importantly, do not generate microplastics," says Aida.

HomeWasGood on December 25th, 2024 at 04:27 UTC »

For some reason when I clicked on the article, I was expecting to say it somehow only works with mice