A scientific team has developed a new durable plastic that will not pollute the oceans. The new material is as resistant as conventional plastics and biodegradable, but what makes it special is that it breaks down in seawater.
Behind this development are researchers from the Riken Center and the University of Tokyo, in Japan. The still experimental results are published this Thursday in the journal Science. The new plastic is expected to help reduce harmful microplastic pollution that accumulates in oceans and soils, according to researchers.
“With this new material, we have created a new family of plastics that are strong, stable, recyclable, can serve multiple functions and, most importantly, do not generate microplastics,” summarizes Takuzo Aida, head of the research. The scientists have tried to develop safe and sustainable materials that can replace traditional plastics, which are not sustainable and damage the environment.
There are some recyclable and biodegradable plastics, but the problem of their effects on the environment persists. Current biodegradable plastics, such as PLA, often end up in the ocean, where They cannot degrade because they are insoluble in water. As a result, microplastics harm aquatic life and reach the food chain, as well as the human body.
In the new work, Aida and her team focused on solving these difficulties with supramolecular plastics, polymers whose structures are held together by reversible interactions. The new plastics were made by combining two ionic monomers that form cross-linked salt bridges, providing strength and flexibility. These materials are non-toxic and non-flammable.that is, they do not emit CO2, and can be remodeled at temperatures above 120 degrees like other thermoplastics.
For Joaquín Martínez Urreaga, from the Polytechnic University of Madrid, this work is of great interest because it proposes, in a reliable and credible way, a new alternative to reduce the pollution problem by plastic waste, especially in seas and oceans. This is based on a new type of plastics, totally different from conventional ones, he points out in statements collected by Science Media Center Spain, a platform of scientific resources for journalists.
The conventional plastics most used today are made up of large molecules where atoms and molecules are joined together by strong bonds. They are resistant to microorganisms and environmental agents such as water, light, oxygen or heat.
This makes them durable and allows abandoned and poorly managed waste to slowly decompose and contaminate the entire environment, details the researcher from the Department of Industrial Chemical Engineering and the Environment of the Higher Technical School of Industrial Engineers, who is not involved in the work. . However, the proposed plastics are made up of molecules of moderate size and, what is essential, joined by bonds that are strong, but can be broken easily under suitable conditions.
Links are formed extracting salts from the reaction medium and they can be broken simply by replenishing the salts. This can be done in a plastic recycling process, to recover the starting components, and it can also be achieved, naturally, in the sea.
The salinity of the water itself could decompose these plastics, regenerating the starting units that, in addition, can be friendly to the environment, thus reducing the pollution problem, describes Martínez. However, he believes, This proposal cannot be expected to immediately solve the problem. More engineering and economic studies are needed to put the process into practice on a large scale.
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