Recyclable plastic made from sugar is now available
Science and Technology Daily Beijing, January 19 (reporter Liu Xia) According to the physicists organization network reported on the 17th, researchers from the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom and Duke University in the United States using sugar-based raw materials rather than petrochemical derivatives, developed two new polymers, they have all the characteristics of ordinary plastics, but can be degraded and physically recycled. One of the polymers is stretchable like rubber; The other is strong and resilient like most plastics.
In the latest study, the scientists used isoiodide and isomannitol as the base materials to create the new polymer. Both compounds, isoiodide and isomnitol, are made from sugar alcohols and have a hard ring of atoms. The researchers found that the newly developed isoiodide based polymer is similar in hardness and ductility to ordinary plastics, and similar in strength to high-performance engineering plastics such as Nylon-6. Notably, these new polymer materials still possess excellent mechanical properties after grinding and heat treatment, which is a common method for physically recycling plastics.
Although isoiodide and isomannitol differ in the three-dimensional spatial orientation (stereochemistry) of only the two bonds, compared with isoiodide polymers, isomannitol polymers, in addition to having similar strength and toughness, also exhibit high elasticity and can recover its shape after deformation. Using computer simulations, the researchers found that the unique 3D shape of the sugar derivatives promoted different movements and interactions of the polymer's long chains, leading them to observe different object properties between the two polymers.
In addition, the researchers found that by creating copolymers that contain both isoiodide and isomannitol units, the mechanical properties and degradation rates of the two units can be controlled separately, opening the door to using the unique shape of the sugar to independently regulate the degradability of a specific plastic without significantly altering other properties of the material.
Dr Connor Stubbs, from the University of Birmingham, said: "Petrochemical based plastics currently face significant environmental challenges. "So we can go outside the box and look at other unique structures and shapes to create better plastics with the same properties as current commercial plastics."