Swiss scientists reported on the 24th in the British journal Nature Communications a new way to produce plastic polymers that can be similar to traditional plastics, but more sustainable bioplastics, and the process takes only 30 minutes. Studies have shown that bioplastics based on renewable resources - bottle grade polyethylene furan esters - have been able to be obtained in a very short time.
In 2018, UNEP focused on the issue of disposable plastic pollution for the first time, and set the theme of this year's World Environment Day as 'plastic warfare' because our planet is surrounded by plastic. A huge ocean between California and Hawaii. The plastic accumulation area is currently floating more than 79,000 tons of plastic waste. According to the UNEP, without restrictions, by 2050, there will be more plastic waste in the ocean than fish.
Compared with conventional plastics, sustainable polymers generally have poor performance, including discoloration and thermal degradation, which are not suitable for specific daily applications. Scientists believe that polyethylene furanate has certain potential, but it is formed after it is formed. Degradation will begin because of the very long reaction time during the production process.
This time, the scientist of the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Massimo Mobydale, and his colleagues proposed a ring-opening polymerization method to form a bottle-shaped polyethylene furan ester long straight chain. According to this method, first use one A high-boiling solvent causes the starting material, the smaller cyclic polyethylene furanate chain, to be mixed with the tin-based catalyst; once the polymer product begins to form, it melts under the reaction conditions, promoting the initial material conversion.
The research team said that the reaction can be completed in 30 minutes using the method, the resulting polyethylene furoate has the desired properties, and the degradation and discoloration problems have been minimized.