Plastics are a victim of their own success, so inexpensive, easy to use and versatile that the world is awash in plastic waste.
Plastics are a victim of their own success, so inexpensive, easy to use and versatile that the world is awash in plastic waste. Now researchers from the University of Houston have reported a new method of producing polyolefins – made from hydrocarbons and the most common building block of plastics – structured to address one of the biggest stumbling blocks to plastics recycling.
The process also would allow plastics to be produced from food oils and other natural substances.
Eva Harth, director of the Welch-UH Center for Excellence in Polymer Chemistry, said the process addresses a long-standing need for industrial plastics producers, without requiring a new catalyst or expensive additives. “It’s a very simple process,” she said.
Harth is a corresponding author for a paper describing the discovery, published in the German journal Angewandte Chemie. Co-authors include co-corresponding author Glen R. Jones, a post-doctoral researcher with the Welch-UH Center, and first author Hatice E. Basburg Alhan, a graduate student at UH.
Read more at University Of Houston
Image Credit: University of Houston
