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By: The opinion Posted Mar 28, 2023, 23:34 pm EDT
The plastic pollutiono It is one of the main ecological challenges of humanity, but the manufacture and use of this material does not stop, that is why scientists develop a new plastic that is not manufactured from crude oil and its derivatives.
Currently, the manufacture of new plastics uses starting materials derived from fossil fuels They do not decompose and are difficult to recycle, so they should remain underground if we want to prevent global warming from advancing.
In their article published in Science Advances, two materials scientists from Boise State University (USA), Allison Christy and Scott Phillips, describe the manufacture of a new type of plastic based on poly(ethyl cyanoacrylate) or PECA, which is prepared from the monomer used to make Super Glue.
Like all plastic polymers, the new product is formed by a polymerization process in which single, repeating monomeric units are linked together in a chemical reaction to form a long chain.
If manufactured on an industrial scale, Christy and Phillips suggest that their new PECA recyclable plastic could replace polystyrene plasticswhich are not accepted in most recycling programs.
An alternative to polluting forms of plastic
Christy and Phillips believe, however, that over time its new PECA plastic could offer a competitive alternative to other forms of plastic beyond Styrofoam.
“Due to the excellent properties of the materials and their ease of recycling, PECA could be useful in contexts other than simply replacing polystyreneor, which would further improve the recyclability of a plastic waste stream,” write Christy and Phillips in their article.
All of that is yet to be tested. Early lab experiments by Christy and Phillips suggest that the new plastic PECA has properties comparable to existing plastics and is stable in hot and humid environments.
As for recycling, Christy and Phillips demonstrated that the long polymeric chains of PECA plastic can be “broken” thermally at temperatures of 210 °C and the resulting monomers distilled into a clean product for reuse.
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