A new kind of plastic that is able to maintain its original qualities when recycled

Determination of topology by MALDI-TOF MS and viscosity. (A) MS spectrum and plot of mass/charge ratio (m/z) values versus the theoretical number of M repeat units for the linear PBTL produced by IMes and BnOH. (B) MS spectrum and plot of m/z values versus the theoretical number of M repeat units for the cyclic PBTL produced by IMes alone. (C) Double logarithm (Mark-Houwink) plots of intrinsic viscosity [η] versus Mw of the linear (blue line) and cyclic (red line) PBTL samples produced by IMes with BnOH and without BnOH. Inset: a photograph of isolated cyclic PBTL. Credit: Science Advances (2020). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abc0495 A team of researchers from the U.S., China, and Saudi Arabia has developed a new kind of plastic that is able to maintain its original qualities when recycled. In their paper published in the journal Science Advances , the group describes how the new plastic is made and how well it did when tested for recyclability. For many years, plastics have been seen as a highly desirable modern advancement—they are light, strong, bendable when needed, and can be used in a very wide variety of applications. The down side to plastics, of course, is that they do […]

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