Teijin extends Bombardier contract

Teijin Limited has been awarded a contract to supply its carbon fiber material to Bombardier Aerostructures for another seven years, until 2025.

Teijin says that part of its focus on aircraft business growth during 2017-2019 and developing carbon fibers with higher tenacity and higher tensile modulus, intermediate materials, carbon fiber thermoplastic consolidated laminate, thermoset prepreg and non-crimp fabric.

Teijin was awarded a contract by Bombardier to supply materials for major primary and secondary composite structures in 2010 and the company’s Tenax carbon fiber has been used for primary structure applications including wing, center wing box structures and empennage applications.

Source;Teijin

Avantium Acquires BASF’s Stake for Full Ownership of Bioplastics Business Synvina

Avantium has retaken full ownership of its YXY plants-to-plastics technology through the purchase of BASF’s shares in the Synvina joint venture. Avantium has appointed Marcel Lubben as Managing Director of Synvina to lead the commercialization of the YXY technology, effective 1 February 2019.
Avantium has regained the intellectual property, people and assets for YXY and has paid BASF €13.7 million for its equity stake in Synvina, as agreed in the Joint Venture Agreement. A net payment of €3.7 million was made for full ownership of the assets acquired by Synvina in the last two years.

Redefining Commercialization Path for Renewable Chemistries

Avantium is redefining the path to commercialization for the YXY technology, which it developed to catalytically convert plant-based sugars into FDCA (furandicarboxylic acid) and materials such as the new plant-based packaging material PEF (polyethylenefuranoate).

• PEF can fulfil the demand of leading brands and consumers for next-generation materials that are environmentally friendly and recyclable
• PEF has the potential to be a game changer in the circular economy

Avantium plans to make further announcements on its new strategy to commercialize YXY during the first half of 2019.
 

Synvina - New Business Unit of Avantium

Synvina has become a new business unit of Avantium, alongside the existing Catalysis and Renewable Chemistries business units.

Avantium’s renewable chemistry programs include:

• Dawn Technology™, which converts non-food feedstock to industrial sugars and lignin, and 
• Mekong technology, which transforms sugars into plant-based monoethylene glycol (MEG) used in the production of materials including renewable plastics and polyesters

Marcel Lubben - New Managing Director of Synvina

Experienced chemicals and biotech executive Marcel Lubben is appointed Managing Director of Synvina and will join Victor Vreeken (Chief Operations Officer) and Willem-Jan Meijer (Financial Director) in Synvina’s leadership team. Lubben worked for 25 years at DSM in various senior business roles, in licensing, corporate venture capital and technology. In his last role, he was president of Reverdia, a joint venture between DSM and Roquette for the production and sale of bio-based succinic acid.

Tom van Aken, Chief Executive Officer of Avantium: “Our belief in YXY and its market potential is rock-solid. Producing FDCA and PEF is a complex innovation process that requires a completely new value chain. I am convinced that the work done so far and the value chain we have built will spur the commercialization of PEF. We have the people, ambition and expertise to bring FDCA and PEF successfully to market, and are very pleased Marcel Lubben will strengthen the team to spearhead this.”

Marcel Lubben, new Managing Director of Synvina: “Green, innovative materials are essential elements in the global transition to a circular economy. I have been following the progress on YXY for several years and am impressed by how it has been built out to a platform for unique materials with significant performance benefits. I am delighted to assume leadership of this Avantium business unit and bring this important technology to market.”
 
Source: Avantium

Toyota and Panasonic agree to establish joint venture for automotive batteries

Toyota Motor Corporation and Panasonic Corporation concluded a business-integration contract and a joint-venture contract toward the establishment of a joint venture related to the automotive prismatic battery business.

 Main points of the agreements
Toyota and Panasonic will establish a joint venture (pending approval from the competition-law authorities in the countries and regions concerned) by the end of 2020. The ratio of equity participation in the joint venture will be 51 percent for Toyota and 49 percent for Panasonic. The scope of the joint venture's business operations will cover research, development, production engineering, manufacturing, procurement, order receipt, and management related to automotive prismatic lithium-ion batteries, solid-state batteries, and next-generation batteries.
Toyota will transfer equipment and personnel to the joint venture in the areas of development and production engineering related to battery cells. Panasonic will transfer equipment, other assets, liabilities, personnel, and other items to the joint venture in the areas of development, production engineering, manufacturing (at plants in Japan and in Dalian, China), procurement, order receipt, and management functions related to the automotive prismatic battery business.
The total number of employees from both companies related to operations subject to transfer to the joint venture is 3,500 (as of the end of December 2018).
Products produced by the joint venture will be sold to various automakers through, in principle, Panasonic.

In addition to changes in consumer needs for the automobile, as evidenced by such shifts as those toward connected vehicles, autonomous driving, and car-sharing services, today's automotive world is also being called on by society to help find solutions to such issues as those related to global warming, resources, and energy. As vehicle electrification accelerates toward the solving of such environmental issues, batteries are a most-important element.
However, numerous battery-related challenges must be tackled, including not only having advanced technological capabilities to address issues of cost, energy density, charging time, and safety, but also being able to ensure stable supply capacity and having effective recycling structures. The business environment is one in which independent efforts by battery manufacturers or automobile manufacturers are not enough for solving the issues concerned.
Against the backdrop of such a business environment, Toyota and Panasonic announced on Dec. 13, 2017 an agreement to study the feasibility of a joint automotive prismatic battery business. Since then, the two companies have achieved high-capacity and high-output automotive prismatic batteries that lead the industry in terms of both performance and cost. To contribute to the popularization of Toyota's and other automakers' electrified vehicles, Toyota and Panasonic have also repeatedly held earnest discussions on the concrete details of their collaboration.


Toyota and Panasonic are confident that the contracts concluded will further strengthen and accelerate their actions toward achieving competitive batteries. The joint venture will integrate management and other resources from both companies, fusing strengths of both Toyota and Panasonic.

Toyota is to contribute:

1. Know-how and market data related to electrified vehicles
2. Advanced technologies related to solid-state batteries and more
3. Toyota-style manufacturing capabilities (monozukuri)

While Panasonic, demonstrating its strengths as a battery manufacturer, is to contribute:

1. Technologies related to high-capacity and high-output batteries that are high-quality and extremely safe
2. Mass-production technologies
3. A customer base both in Japan and overseas.

In this way, the joint venture aims to become the leader in battery-development and battery-manufacturing capabilities.
Specifically, for the joint venture to become the leader in battery-development capability, Toyota and Panasonic intend to coordinate with each other from the vehicle planning and conception stage, and promote the acceleration of high-capacity and high-output battery development. For the joint venture to become the leader in battery-manufacturing capability, Toyota and Panasonic intend to share with each other their production-engineering resources and monozukuri know-how, and, in addition to establishing a high-quality, low-cost, stable supply structure, they plan to also, among other efforts, leverage merits of scale related to procurement and manufacturing costs.

Source:TOYOTA/PANASONIC
 

Nestlé Accelerates Actions to Meet its Sustainable Packaging Goals by 2025

Nestlé has announced its broader vision to achieve a waste-free future and announced a series of specific actions towards meeting its April 2018 commitment to make 100% of its packaging recyclable or reusable by 2025, with a particular focus on avoiding plastic-waste.
Nestlé CEO Mark Schneider said, "Our broader vision and action plan outline our commitment and specific approach to addressing the plastics packaging waste issue.
While we are committed to pursuing recycling options where feasible, we know that 100% recyclability is not enough to successfully tackle the plastics waste crisis. We need to push the boundaries and do more. We are determined to look at every option to solve this complex challenge and embrace multiple solutions that can have an impact now. We believe in the value of recyclable and compostable paper-based materials and biodegradable polymers, in particular where recycling infrastructure does not exist.
Collective action is vital, which is why we are also engaging consumers, business partners and all of our Nestlé colleagues to play their part.
You can count on us to be a leader in this space!"
Addressing the multifaceted issue of plastic pollution requires a holistic view and a well-orchestrated effort. To realize this objective, specific actions are required. In line with this approach, Nestlé has announced tangible steps to pioneer alternative materials, shape a waste-free future and drive behavior change.

Pioneering Alternative Packaging Materials

In December 2018, Nestlé announced the creation of its Institute of Packaging Sciences to:

• Evaluate and develop various sustainable packaging materials 
• Collaborate with industrial partners to develop new packaging materials and solutions

"We believe in the value of recyclable and compostable paper-based materials and biodegradable polymers," Nestle's CEO Mark Schneider said. The company has pledged to speed up its commitment to tackle plastic waste. 

Between 2020 and 2025, Nestlé will phase out all plastics that are not recyclable or are hard to recycle for all its products worldwide. In doing so, Nestlé is rolling out alternative packaging materials across its global product portfolio and establishing partnerships with cutting-edge packaging specialists:
Starting in February 2019, Nestlé will begin to eliminate all plastic straws from its products, using alternative materials like paper as well as innovative designs to reduce littering.
Nestlé will also start rolling out paper packaging for Nesquik in the first quarter of 2019 and for the Yes! snack bar in the second half of 2019. Smarties will start rolling out plastic-free packaging in 2019 and Milo will introduce paper-based pouches in 2020.

Increasing the Recycled PET Content in Bottles

• Nestlé Waters will increase the recycled PET content in its bottles to 35% by 2025 at the global level and will reach 50% in the United States, with a specific focus on its iconic brand Poland Spring. 
• In addition, Nestlé Waters will increase the recycled PET content for its European brands Acqua Panna, Buxton, Henniez and Levissima to 50% by 2025.

Successful recycling requires an adequate infrastructure, which is currently not always in place. Nestlé Institute of Packaging Sciences is exploring new paper-based materials and biodegradable/compostable polymers that are also recyclable, among other alternatives. This could become a valuable option in places where recycling infrastructure does not yet exist and will not be available for some time.

• Nestlé is also collaborating with external partners. The Company has formed a global partnership with Danimer Scientific to develop a marine biodegradable and recyclable bottle for its water business. 
• Furthermore, Nestlé initiated a collaboration with PureCycle Technologies to produce food-grade recycled Polypropylene (PP). PureCycle Technologies is commercializing ground-breaking recycling technologies which can remove color, odor and contaminants from plastic waste feedstock in order to transform it into virgin-like resin. 

Shaping a Waste-free Future - Project STOP

Over and above delivering on its 2025 commitment, Nestlé has a longer-term ambition to stop plastic leakage into the environment across its global operations. This will help avoid further accumulation of plastics in nature and achieve plastic neutrality.

Nestlé has become the first food company to partner with Project STOP, which was launched in Indonesia in 2017.

• Project STOP is a leading initiative to prevent the leakage of plastic into the ocean by developing partnerships with cities and governments in Southeast Asia. 
• Project STOP is creating sustainable, circular and low-cost waste systems that capture as much value from waste as possible. 
• It supports the many existing local initiatives and informal waste pickers in Indonesia’s coastal areas. 

 Over the coming months, company aims to take the learnings from this project to other countries where they operate in an effort to deliver ‘plastic neutrality’ in those markets. Nestlé will provide more details at the appropriate time.

Driving New Behavior to Tackle Plastic Waste

Addressing the plastic waste challenge requires behavior change from all of us. Nestlé is committed to leading lasting and impactful change mentioning there is no better place to “start than from within our own Company”.

• All 4,200 Nestlé facilities worldwide are committed to eliminating single-use plastic items that cannot be recycled. These items will be replaced by materials that can easily be recycled or reused. For recyclable materials such as PET and aluminum, company will ensure that the proper means to collect and handle are available where consumed and their commitment to recycling is well communicated.
• Nestlé employees in all locations worldwide and at all levels will dedicate their volunteering days to the removal of litter and participate in clean-up activities on World Ocean Day on June 8, 2019. To lead the way, Nestlé’s Executive Board and employees at the Company’s global headquarters in Switzerland will volunteer to clean the shores of Lake Geneva in May 2019.

Responding to the plastic waste challenge and striving for zero environmental impact in its operations is an integral part of Nestlé’s commitment to creating shared value for shareholders and society. Nestlé is particularly dedicated to accelerating action in tackling the plastic waste issue and report on the Company’s progress publicly.
 
Source: Nestlé

BASF Aims to Develop Sustainable Chemicals Using Renewable Resources by 2030

Climate protection is firmly embedded in BASF’s new corporate strategy. A central goal of this strategy is to achieve CO₂-neutral growth until 2030. To accomplish this, BASF is continuously optimizing existing processes, gradually replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy sources and developing radically new low-emission production processes.

The company is bundling all of this work in an ambitious Carbon Management program. BASF presents the latest research findings on these new processes as well as innovative, climate-friendly products at its Research Press Conference in Ludwigshafen.

Large-scale Reduction in CO₂ Emissions

 “To reach the climate protection targets, a large-scale reduction in CO₂ emissions will be necessary. As a raw material, CO₂ is only suitable in selected applications and such uses will therefore not make a decisive contribution to slowing climate change,” stressed Dr. Martin Brudermüller, Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors and Chief Technology Officer of BASF SE. In the past decades, the company has already avoided considerable CO₂ emissions by optimizing its production processes and increasing efficiency.

World’s First Electrical Heating Concept

Since 1990, BASF has reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 50% while doubling its production volumes in the same period. “Achieving another significant reduction in CO₂ emissions will require entirely new technologies, which is why BASF has launched an ambitious R&D program,” said Brudermüller.

Because energy is needed to perform chemical reactions, fossil fuels are the largest source of CO₂ in the chemical industry. BASF’s steam crackers, for example, must reach a temperature of 850°C in order to break down naphtha into olefins and aromatics for further processing.

If this energy could come from renewable electricity instead of the natural gas typically used now, CO₂ emissions could be dramatically reduced by as much
as 90%. BASF therefore aims to develop the world’s first electrical heating
concept for steam crackers within the next five years.

At the same time, material testing will be necessary to determine which metallic materials can withstand the high electrical currents and are suitable for use in this type of high-temperature reactor.

The production of hydrogen also releases significant volumes of CO₂. The chemical industry uses large quantities of hydrogen as a reactant. At BASF, for instance, it is used in ammonia synthesis. Hydrogen will also be essential for many sustainable energy carrier and energy storage applications in the future. Together with cooperation partners, BASF is therefore developing a new process technology to produce hydrogen from natural gas.

This technology splits natural gas directly into its components hydrogen and carbon. The resulting solid carbon can potentially be used in steel or aluminum production, for example. This methane pyrolysis process requires comparatively little energy. If this energy comes from renewable sources, hydrogen can be produced on an industrial scale without CO₂ emissions.

Developing New Low-emission Processes

As a central, high-volume intermediate, olefins represent an especially important area where BASF is looking to develop new low-emission processes. The considerable CO₂ emissions resulting from current production methods in the steam cracker could also be significantly reduced through “dry reforming” of methane.

This process creates a syngas which is then transformed into olefins via an intermediate step of dimethyl ether. BASF researchers have now been able to find a way to do this for the first time thanks to new, high-performance catalyst systems. These new-generation catalysts are being marketed in cooperation with Linde.

Depending on the availability of raw materials and renewable electricity, this innovative process could then be a complement or alternative to the potential electrical heating of steam crackers.

Using CO₂ as a Chemical Feedstock

BASF is also presenting a new approach for using CO₂ as a chemical feedstock, with the production of sodium acrylate from ethylene and CO₂. Sodium acrylate is an important starting material for super-absorbents, which are widely used in diapers and other hygiene products.

A few years ago, researchers at the BASF-supported Catalysis Research Laboratory (CaRLa) at the University of Heidelberg were able for the first time to successfully close the catalyst cycle for this reaction. In the meantime, BASF experts have made important progress in scaling up this process to industrial scale and have demonstrated that it can be successfully implemented at laboratory scale in a mini plant.

Compared to the current propylene-based production method for super-absorbents, in the new process CO₂ would replace around 30% of the fossil fuels, provided that a larger-scale process also proves to be stable and energetically favorable.

BASF’s Groundbreaking Innovative Leaps

The four projects presented are representative of the unique portfolio of topics addressed by BASF’s research activities, which also include work on groundbreaking innovative leaps. BASF aims to maintain its research and development expenditures at the high level of previous years.

These expenditures amounted to €1,888 million in 2017, and the figure for 2018 will be published at the Annual Press Conference at the end of February. BASF’s research pipeline includes around 3,000 projects, which are being worked on by more than 11,000 employees in research and development worldwide. An important component of the Know-How Verbund is the network of R&D collaborations with excellent universities, research institutes and companies.

Source: BASF

New Process to Develop Microbe-derived Polymer to Curb Plastic Pollution

According to the United Nations, plastic accounts for up to 90 percent of all the pollutants in our oceans, yet there are few comparable, environmentally friendly alternatives to the material. 

New Sustainable Tech Developed by TAU Researchers

Now, a new Tel Aviv University study describes a process to make bioplastic polymers that don't require land or fresh water — resources that are scarce in much of the world. The polymer is derived from microorganisms that feed on seaweed. It is biodegradable, produces zero toxic waste and recycles into organic waste.

The invention was the fruit of a multidisciplinary collaboration between Dr. Alexander Golberg of TAU's Porter School of Environmental and Earth Sciences and Prof. Michael Gozin of TAU's School of Chemistry. Their research was recently published in the journal Bioresource Technology.

Using Seaweed as "Fuel" for Decontamination

"Plastics take hundreds of years to decay. So bottles, packaging and bags create plastic 'continents' in the oceans, endanger animals and pollute the environment," says Dr. Golberg. "Plastic is also produced from petroleum products, which has an industrial process that releases chemical contaminants as a byproduct."

"A partial solution to the plastic epidemic is bioplastics, which don't use petroleum and degrade quickly. But bioplastics also have an environmental price: To grow the plants or the bacteria to make the plastic requires fertile soil and fresh water, which many countries, including Israel, don't have. Our new process produces 'plastic' from marine microorganisms that completely recycle into organic waste."
The researchers harnessed microorganisms that feed on seaweed to produce a bioplastic polymer called polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA). "Our raw material was multicellular seaweed, cultivated in the sea," Dr. Golberg says. "These algae were eaten by single-celled microorganisms, which also grow in very salty water and produce a polymer that can be used to make bioplastic."

Fighting Pollution Without Using Fresh Water

"There are already factories that produce this type of bioplastic in commercial quantities, but they use plants that require agricultural land and fresh water. The process we propose will enable countries with a shortage of fresh water, such as Israel, China and India, to switch from petroleum-derived plastics to biodegradable plastics."

According to Dr. Golberg, the new study could revolutionize the world's efforts to clean the oceans, without affecting arable land and without using fresh water. 

"Plastic from fossil sources is one of the most polluting factors in the oceans," he says. "We have proved it is possible to produce bioplastic completely based on marine resources in a process that is friendly both to the environment and to its residents."

"We are now conducting basic research to find the best bacteria and algae that would be most suitable for producing polymers for bioplastics with different properties," he concludes.

The research was partially funded by the TAU-Triangle Regional R&D Center in Kfar Kara under the academic auspices of Tel Aviv University, and by the Israeli Ministry of Energy and Infrastructures.

Source: Tel Aviv University

Researchers Develop Plant-based 100% Biodegradable and Edible Food Packaging

University of Nottingham researchers have developed 100 percent biodegradable and edible food packaging made from plant carbohydrates and proteins to replace polluting plastic materials and improve storage, safety and shelf life.

Solution to Develop Advanced Materials for Packaging

 The Sino-UK project is led by Professor Saffa Riffat, from the Faculty of Engineering, whose research group is world-renown for innovations in sustainable materials, energy and building technologies. 

This includes their investigations into the structure and functionality of sustainable natural materials such as plant polysaccharides (carbohydrates) and proteins to develop advanced materials for applications in:

• Buildings
• Energy technologies
• Packaging 

Using a special technical approach, the team is working on plastic films derived from konjac flour and starch, cellulose or proteins that are fully edible and harmless if accidentally eaten by people or animals - unlike health issues associated with microplastics and other plastic waste that make their way into the food chain.

The researchers have found that plant carbohydrate and protein macromolecules bond together into a special network structure during the film-forming process. The network structure provides the film with a required mechanical strength and transparent appearance for the film to be used as packaging materials.

Degradable Solutions to Tackle Plastic Pollution

The project is jointly investigated by Marie Curie Research Fellow, Professor Fatang Jiang, an expert in biodegradable polysaccharide materials for moisture control, thermal insulation and infiltration. He recently joined the University of Nottingham from Hubei University of Technology in China, where part of the study is being worked on.

Prof Riffat, also a Fellow of the European Academy of Sciences and President of World Society of Sustainable Energy Technologies, said: “While plastic materials have been in use for around a century, their poor degradability is now known to cause serious environmental harm. This has led to more stringent recycling targets and even bans coming into force."

“Queen Elizabeth, for example, banned plastic straws and bottles from the royal estates in February 2018, and the EU plans to make all plastic packaging recyclable or reusable by 2030. We need to find degradable solutions to tackle plastic pollution, and this is what we are working on now.”

Plant-based Packaging: Edible, Degradable, Strong and Transparent

Fully-biodegradable bags could not only solve the safety and pollution issues of food packaging materials, but also efficiently lengthen the shelf life of fruit and vegetables and other fresh produce.

“In addition to being edible, degradable, strong and transparent, the packaging materials we are working on have low gas permeability, making them more air tight. This feature cuts moisture loss, which slows down spoilage, and seals in the flavor. This is of great importance for the quality, preservation, storage and safety of foods,” Professor Riffat adds.

The primary market for these plant-based packaging materials will be superstores and food supply chains. The research team is also aiming to advance the technology for general packaging in construction, express delivery and magazines, etc.

The project, currently supported by the £220K Horizon 2020 Marie Curie fellowship, will last two years with the potential to extend for another three to five years if further funding is secured.

Source: University of Nottingham

New Lightweight Bio-composite Using Date Palm Fiber Biomass for Automotive

A team of researchers have developed a bio-composite material using date palm fiber biomass. The new material can be used to produce sustainable, lightweight and low-cost applications in the automotive and marine industries. (non-structural parts, such as car bumpers and door linings).
The team involved researchers from:

• The University of Portsmouth 
• The University of Cambridge 
• INRA (Institut national de la recherche agronomique, a French public research institute dedicated to agricultural science) 
  

 University of Britanny, South Unlike synthetic composites reinforced by glass and carbon fibers, the date palm fiber polycaprolactone (PCL) bio-composite is completely:

• Biodegradable, 
• Renewable, 
• Sustainable and 
• Recyclable

Bio-Composite with Enhanced Mechanical Properties

In a study, published in the journal Industrial Crops and Products, the researchers tested the mechanical properties of the bio-composite. They found that the date palm fiber PCL had increased tensile strength and achieved better low-velocity impact resistance than traditional man-made composites.

Dr Hom Dhakal, who leads the Advanced Materials and Manufacturing (AMM) Research Group at the University of Portsmouth and co-author of the study, said:
“Investigating the suitability of date palm fibers waste biomass as reinforcement in lightweight composite materials provides a tremendous opportunity of utilizing this material to develop low-cost, sustainable and lightweight biocomposites. The impact of this work would be extremely significant because these lightweight alternatives could help reduce the weight of vehicles, contributing to less fuel consumption and fewer CO₂ emissions. The sustainable materials can be produced using less energy than glass and carbon fibers and are biodegradable, therefore easier to recycle.”

The study is one of the first to provide a comprehensive assessment of the improved mechanical properties of date palm fiber PCL bio-composites.

Waste Leaf Sheath Date Palm Fibers for Composite Reinforcement

Date palm fibers are one of the most available natural fibers in North Africa and the Middle East. Date palm trees produce a large quantity of agriculture waste, which is burned or land-filled, causing serious environmental pollution as well as the destruction of important soil micro-organisms. The part of the date palm tree which is often used as fibers is the sheath. The sheath is the part of the tree which surrounds the trunk of the plant. It is often torn lose when pruning the leaves.

“It’s a long journey,” said Dr Dhakal, “and we have to have patience and perseverance to make an impact. The challenge is getting consistent, reliable properties. It takes a long time to convince people to use a new class of materials, such as natural fiber reinforced composites for non-structural and structural applications.

“Meeting these challenges requires further research and innovation between academic institutions and industry.”

Dr Dhakal and his team have been working closely with industry to test the strength and viability of parts made from sustainable materials, such as date palm, flax, hemp and jute fibers. The AMM Research Group has been working in collaboration with researchers from institutions from around the world.

In the last 18 months, the group has published many high impact factor papers in journals including the Composites Science and Technology, Composites Part A and Composites Part B.

A recent collaborative study, published in the journal of Composite Part A: Applied Science and Manufacturing explored the potential of waste leaf sheath date palm fibers for composite reinforcement.


Source: University of Portsmouth

New Method to Prevent Clumping of BNNTs Using Common Surfactants

Boron nitride nanotubes sure do like to stick together. If they weren’t so useful, they could stay stuck and nobody would care. But because they are useful, Rice University chemists have determined that surfactants — the basic compounds in soap — offer the best and easiest way to keep boron nitride nanotubes (BNNTs) from clumping. That could lead to expanded use in protective shields, as thermal and mechanical reinforcement for composite materials and in biomedical applications like delivering drugs to cells.

BNNTs with “Super Cool Properties”

The research led by Rice chemist Angel Martí appears this month in the Royal Society of Chemistry journal Nanoscale Advances.
BNNTs are like their better-known cousins, carbon nanotubes, because both are hydrophobic – that is, they avoid water if at all possible. So in a solution, the nanotubes will seek each other out and stick together to minimize their exposure to water.
But unlike carbon nanotubes, which can be either metallic conductors or semiconducting, BNNTs are pure insulators: Current shall not pass.

“They have super cool properties,” said lead author Ashleigh Smith McWilliams, a Rice graduate student. “They’re thermally and chemically stable and they’re a great fit for a bunch of different applications, but they’re inert and difficult to disperse in any solvent or solution."

“That makes it really difficult to make macroscopic materials out of them, which is what we would eventually like to do,” she said.

Surfactants Separating BNNTs Effectively

Surfactants are amphiphilic molecules, with parts that are attracted to water and parts repelled by it. BNNTs are hydrophobic, so they attract the similar part of the surfactant molecule, which wraps around the nanotube. The surfactant’s other half is hydrophilic and keeps the wrapped nanotubes separated and dispersed in solution.

Of the range of surfactants they tried, cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) was best at separating BNNTs from each other completely, while Pluronic F108 put the most nanotubes – about 10 percent of the bulk – into solution.

Once separated, they can be turned into films or fibers through processes like those developed by co-author Matteo Pasquali and his Rice lab, or mixed into composites to add strength without increasing conductivity, McWilliams said. The surfactant itself can be washed or burned off when no longer needed, she said.

A side benefit is that cationic surfactants like CTAB are particularly good at eliminating impurities like flakes of hexagonal boron-nitride (aka white graphene) from BNNTs. “That was a benefit we didn’t expect to see, but it will be useful for future applications,” McWilliams said.

Boron Nitride Nanotubes: The Great Building Block 

 “Boron nitride nanotubes are a great building block, but when you buy them, they come all clumped together,” Martí said. “You have to separate them before you can make something usable. This is what Ashleigh has achieved.”
He envisions not only ultrathin coaxial cables with carbon nanotube fibers like those from Pasquali’s lab surrounded by BNNT shells, but also capacitors of sandwiched carbon and BNNT films.

Enhanced Electronics with Insulating BNNTs

“We’ve had metallic and semiconducting carbon nanotubes for a long time, but insulating BNNTs have been like the missing link,” Martí said. “Now we can combine them to make some interesting electronics. It’s remarkable that a common surfactant found in everyday products like detergents and shampoo can also be used for advanced nanotechnology.”
Co-authors of the paper are Rice graduate student Carlos de los Reyes and undergraduate student Selin Ergülen; graduate student Lucy Liberman and Yeshayahu Talmon, professor emeritus of chemical engineering, at Technion – Israel Institute of Technology; and Pasquali, a Rice professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, of materials science and nanoengineering and of chemistry. Martí is an associate professor of chemistry, of bioengineering and of materials science and nanoengineering.
The National Science Foundation, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the U.S.-Israel Binational Science Foundation and the Welch Foundation supported the research.
Source: Rice University

 

New Catalysis Concept to Obtain Polyester from Castor Oil

The development of future technologies that are not based on mineral oil and can be used for producing chemicals and plastics is one of the major tasks in modern materials science and a key challenge that needs to be addressed if sustainable industrial production is to have a future.

Synthetic Polyester from Plant Oil Feedstock

 A range of theoretical concepts and laboratory processes must be devised and tested to resolve challenges and problems arising in connection with the natural materials before potential applications for materials obtained from renewable resources can be probed.
One such concept has just been described by Professor Stefan Mecking in a current study on obtaining polyester from castor oil entitled “Synthetic Polyester from Plant Oil Feedstock by Functionalizing Polymerization” in the journal “Angewandte Chemie”.
With his colleague Dr Ye Liu, an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow and the first author of the study, Stefan Mecking presents a new way of obtaining polyester from fats and oils, more specifically, from castor oil. A well-known and chemically established building block that can be obtained from castor oil is Undecenol.
“Our idea was to interlink many of these molecules to form one large molecule, a plastic molecule. We wanted the whole process to be effective and readily accomplishable ‘in one go’”, Stefan Mecking elaborates.

Suitable Catalysts to Create Polyester Effectively

Undecenol has a group of alcohols at one end of the molecule and a double bond at the other. It was decisive to interlink these two groups to form an ester group in such a way as to enable simultaneous linkage with long-chain molecules, i.e. plastics. Such long-chain bonds are required to obtain the desired material properties. One of the major general challenges in regard to these procedures is to identify suitable catalysts.

“They are especially important because the reaction leading up to the formation of the desired long-chain molecules must be incredibly effective and proceed without any variance”, explains Stefan Mecking.

For the production of polyester as described in their study, the chemists used carbonylation to obtain the ester groups. “The problem is that Undecenol reacts with another smaller molecule, an aldehyde. If this happens, it does not become part of the molecule chain, which means that it gets lost”, says Stefan Mecking, summarizing the gist and great success of his research.

By using suitable catalysts, the researchers were able to prevent this loss and to create polyester effectively. While developing the catalysts, they also worked out the conceptual steps required for adjusting the melting point of the products. “Due to the insights we gained, we should be able to infer how to handle the melting points of other long-chain substrates”, concludes Stefan Mecking, alluding to potential transfer applications of his concept for other renewable resources that are even more readily available than castor oil.

Source: University of Konstanz