Breakthrough! American scientists develop new plastic that can be recycled repeatedly
Beijing, May 10 (Xinhua) -- At present, the problem of plastic pollution is very serious, and plastic pollution in the global ocean alone may cause about 2.5 trillion US dollars in losses to "Marine ecosystems" including fisheries and Marine entertainment industries. However, the United States Berkeley Lab recently developed a recyclable plastic, or help solve the problem.
The paper, published in the journal Nature Chemistry, details how researchers have developed a synthetic plastic that can be "assembled" and transformed into other new materials of different colors, shapes or forms.The new plastic has been provisionally named polydiketoenamine or PDK plastic, the researchers said. The plastic degrades to the molecular level and can be reused.
"In the past, most plastics were not made with the intention of being recycled," said Christensen, the Berkeley Lab researcher. "But the new synthetic method we found enables recycling from a molecular perspective."
After PDK is broken down in a simple acid bath, the recovered molecules can be remade into the same or different polymers, according to the report. Although PDK has only been manufactured in the laboratory, the researchers are excited about its possible impact, because once traditional plastics are replaced by PDK, people will be able to recycle plastic products more efficiently in the future.