<
https://newatlas.com/materials/vpr-plastic-self-heals-shape-memory-recyclable-biodegradable/>
"Japanese scientists have developed a new type of plastic that’s strong at room
temperature, but can be easily broken down on demand into its base components.
In seawater, it starts to break down into food for marine life, and just to top
it off, it can self-heal and remember past shapes.
Plastic is everywhere in our modern world, for better or worse. Its toughness
makes it an extremely useful material for everything from household items to
vehicle parts, but that same toughness makes it hard to break down for
recycling or disposal.
In the new study, scientists at the University of Tokyo developed a new plastic
material that can be broken down more easily, either in recycling plants or in
nature. It’s based on a class of plastic called an epoxy resin vitrimer, which
are strong at room temperature but can be reshaped and molded with a bit of
added heat. Normally, vitrimers are brittle, but the team improved the recipe
by adding a molecule called polyrotaxane.
The end result is a new plastic they call VPR, which boasted a huge range of
advantages over similar materials. After being scratched with a scalpel, it was
able to completely patch itself back up after being heated to 150 °C (302 °F)
for just 60 seconds. When it was molded into the shape of a crane, then
flattened, it could fold itself back into the crane shape by being heated up.
It did all of this much faster than others of its type.
VPR can also break down easier – but only once it’s no longer needed. Applying
heat along with a specific solvent will bust apart its molecular bonds and
leave only the raw components, ready to be made into something new. Even if
it’s discarded into the environment it still poses less of a problem than other
plastics, which the team demonstrated by submerging it in seawater for 30 days.
In that time, it biodegraded by 25% and released molecules that are essentially
food for marine life, the team says."
Via
What Could Go Right? November 16, 2023:
https://theprogressnetwork.org/under-5-neonatal-mortality-rates/
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
