polymerguru

Researchers at TU Berlin are researching to replace plastics from petroleum - with the help of bacteria. Waste Fats: Raw Material for Alternative PHA A timid approach to dealing with plastic plague is PHA (polyhydroxyalkanoates). They are biopolymers and are used widely as they are like plastic from fossil fuels. " Half of the two million tons of bioplastics that are currently produced worldwide per year are not biodegradable and the other half are sometimes difficult to ," says Riedel. Therefore, a need arises for alternative PHA based on other raw materials. The raw material can be obtained from many substances like corn, sugar, glycerine or palm oil. Sebastian L. Riedel and Stefan Junne, however, had a basic product that does not pollute the climate and is not food or feed such as corn as such a source material is considered problematic. In the search for an alternative,  they decided waste fats  among other things, which are incurred, inter alia, in agriculture (ani

Caltech researchers have helped to design a new generation of heart valves that are longer-lasting, cost less to manufacture, and are more biocompatible than options that are currently available to patients. As part of an FDA trial, one of the new valves was implanted into a human for the first time in late July. New Tria Valve for Aortic Valve Disease  The new Tria heart valve was created by Foldax® Inc., a Caltech startup cofounded by Mory Gharib, the Hans W. Liepmann Professor of Aeronautics and Bioinspired Engineering in the Division of Engineering and Applied Science. Gharib and his team worked closely with Foldax lead designer Jason Beith in designing the new valve. It was implanted in a patient with aortic valve disease at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan, as part of an FDA Early Feasibility Study (EFS). Newly Developed Biopolymer Material for Durability The Tria valve uses a newly developed biopolymer material coupled with a bioinspired shape to create a valve

Researchers at TU Berlin are researching to replace plastics from petroleum - with the help of bacteria. Waste Fats: Raw Material for Alternative PHA A timid approach to dealing with plastic plague is PHA (polyhydroxyalkanoates). They are biopolymers and are used widely as they are like plastic from fossil fuels. " Half of the two million tons of bioplastics that are currently produced worldwide per year are not biodegradable and the other half are sometimes difficult to ," says Riedel. Therefore, a need arises for alternative PHA based on other raw materials. The raw material can be obtained from many substances like corn, sugar, glycerine or palm oil. Sebastian L. Riedel and Stefan Junne, however, had a basic product that does not pollute the climate and is not food or feed such as corn as such a source material is considered problematic. In the search for an alternative,  they decided waste fats  among other things, which are incurred, inter alia, in agriculture (anim

Researchers from Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology have made a new, tough, transparent Polycarbonate composite reinforced with two biomass derived alternatives isosorbide and cellulose nanocrystals replacing both BPA and glass fibers. These Polycarbonate sheets have outperformed traditional BPA-reinforced polycarbonate plastic in strength tests and can replace BPA-based polycarbonates in a variety of common applications. The research team was led by Sung Hwang, Dongyeop Oh and Jeyoung Park from the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology. Safer Alternatives for BPA Polycarbonate  is a popular shatter-resistant alternative to glass in windows, display screens, bottles and optical fibers. However, polycarbonate plastics are frequently made using bisphenol A (BPA) and glass fibers. BPA is an endocrine disruptor increasingly associated with regulations – Canada, the EU and the US Food and Drug Administration have banned BPA in baby bottles with the EU also ba

Scientists at the University of Birmingham have developed a way of making organic polymers from the fragrant molecules found in conifers and fruit trees. The technique could lead to a new generation of sustainable materials for use in biomedical applications or  3D printing prototyping . Molecules called as terpenes are found in the essential oils of a wide variety of plants and are often used in fragrances, cosmetics and other household products. Terpenes can also be used to produce resins. Combining Terpenes & Thiols to Develop Light Activated Resins In order to find a way to produce sustainable polymers, researchers have devised a technique for extracting the terpenes molecules and converting them into stable resins. By combining them with sulfur-based organic compounds called thiols, the resins can be activated by light to form a solid material. Processing the terpenes in this way makes them particularly useful in a 3D printing process called stereolithography, where o

Haydale, a global advanced materials group, has been awarded a contract by the European Space Agency (ESA), which is seeking to develop non-metallic gas tanks for spacecraft propulsion systems in a technology de-risking project. The demand for small satellite launches has created a challenge within the existing space propulsion supply chain for low-cost reliable components. With the constellation market set to increase rapidly, the development of components that meet these criteria is critical. Haydale's non-metallic system offers a low-cost alternative with reduced lead time that can be offered in a wider range of configurations to exactly suit the end user requirement. Haydale will formulate and model a largely de-risked tank, prior to the manufacture of development models for full testing. This will result in the qualification for specific Spacecraft Propulsion Systems. Prominent producers of Satellite technology have been identified and are engaged in developing

A team of environmental scientists from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and China has for the first time used a dynamic, two-step process to completely degrade a common  flame-retardant chemical , rendering the persistent global pollutant nontoxic. New Process to Breakdown Common FR TBBPA This new process breaks down tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA) to harmless carbon dioxide and water. The discovery highlights the potential of using a special material, sulfidated nanoscale zerovalent iron (S-nZVI), in water treatment systems and in the natural environment to break down not only TBBPA but other organic refractory compounds that are difficult to degrade, says Jun Wu, a visiting Ph.D. student at UMass Amherst’s Stockbridge College of Agriculture and lead author of the paper published in Environmental Science & Technology. Oxic and Anoxic Process “ This is the first research about this dynamic, oxic/anoxic process, ” Wu says. “ Usually, reduction or oxidation alone is