Bye-bye microplastics: new plastic is recyclable and fully ocean-degradable

[OKIsItJustMe]

https://www.riken.jp/en/news_pubs/research_news/pr/2024/20241122_1/index.html

Nov. 26, 2024
Bye-bye microplastics: new plastic is recyclable and fully ocean-degradable

…

As with oil with water, after mixing the two monomers together in water, the researchers observed two separated liquids. One was thick and viscous and contained the important structural cross linked salt bridges, while the other was watery and contained salt ions. For example, when sodium hexametaphosphate and alkyl diguanidinium sulfate were used, sodium sulphate salt was expelled into the watery layer. The final plastic, alkyl SP₂, was made by drying what remained in the thick viscous liquid layer.

The “desalting” turned out to be the critical step; without it, the resulting dried material was a brittle crystal, unfit for use. Resalting the plastic by placing it in salt water caused the interactions to reverse and the plastic’s structure destabilized in a matter of hours. Thus, having created a strong and durable plastic that can still be dissolved under certain conditions, the researchers next tested the plastic’s quality.

The new plastics are non-toxic and non-flammable—meaning no CO₂ emissions—and can be reshaped at temperatures above 120°C like other thermoplastics. By testing different types of guanidinium sulfates, the team was able to generate plastics that had varying hardnesses and tensile strengths, all comparable or better than conventional plastics. This means that the new type of plastic can be customized for need; hard scratch resistant plastics, rubber silicone-like plastics, strong weight-bearing plastics, or low tensile flexible plastics are all possible. The researchers also created ocean-degradable plastics using polysaccharides that form cross-linked salt bridges with guanidinium monomers. Plastics like these can be used in 3D printing as well as medical or health-related applications.

Lastly, the researchers investigated the new plastic’s recyclability and biodegradability. After dissolving the initial new plastic in salt water, they were able to recover 91% of the hexametaphosphate and 82% of the guanidinium as powders, indicating that recycling is easy and efficient. In soil, sheets of the new plastic degraded completely over the course of 10 days, supplying the soil with phosphorous and nitrogen similar to a fertilizer.

…

http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.ado1782

[NNadir]

1. Here's a nice review of the topic from 1990:

Peter P. Klemchuk, Degradable plastics: A critical review, Polymer Degradation and Stability, Volume 27, Issue 2, 1990, Pages 183-202

Thirty four years later, I'm sure we'll say "bye-bye," or did we? I mean we have a whole journal dedicated to the topic, sort of like the journals devoted to the hydrogen miracle that gets hyped every one or two decades.

Nothing wrong with a little disingenuous super optimistic hype, is there?

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. Nothing can possibly advance in a quarter century

Except for nuclear power of course. Hey how are all of those fantastic new “Gen IV” reactors working?

https://www.gen-4.org/about-gif/history-and-achievements-gif

ORIGINS OF THE GENERATION IV INTERNATIONAL FORUM

GIF meetings began in January 2000 when the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Nuclear Energy, Science and Technology convened a group of senior governmental representatives from the original nine countries to begin discussions on international collaboration in the development of Generation IV nuclear energy systems.

This group, subsequently named the GIF Policy Group, also decided to form a group of senior technical experts to explore areas of mutual interest and make recommendations regarding both research and development areas and processes by which collaboration could be conducted and assessed. This senior Technical Experts Group first met in April 2000.

…

[NNadir]

3. The nuclear industry, after deliberate efforts to destroy its infrastructure, is beginning to recover from the...

...ignorance of its critics.

My son, I'm pleased to say, not being a moron, is on the front lines of developments in the field.

I'm very, very, very proud of him. I sat him down over the thanksgiving break to remind him - not that I had to - that it his responsibility to work as hard, not for personal profit, but for humanity, to address the coming hard times given all of the outstanding educational resources he has enjoyed. He assured me he understood, and promised to honor what I've personally taught him after I am gone.

He's in additive manufacture right now; but I advised him that he will be required to think far beyond his graduate training, and we exchanged ideas about his girlfriend's favorite element in the periodic table - she is also a highly educated nuclear engineer - americium, its critical mass and its fission neutron multiplicity over the fast spectrum and the properties of the ^242mAm isotope which can be obtained from ²⁴¹Am recovered for the benefit of humanity - whining destructive ignoramuses be damned - from used nuclear fuel, particularly if we recover the isolated aged reactor grade plutonium stockpiles in the UK to accelerate breeding for more rapid scale up.

Of course, the assholes who have functioned as arsonists complaining about forest fires, who did everything in their dumb shit power like to sit on their asses, parrot university press releases to hype trivial junk as if they were just about to be industrialized on a massive scale, are not satisfied with the rate of recovery from the extreme ignorance they so readily embraced, the willful destruction of nuclear intellectual, physical and manufacturing infrastructure.

We are recovering however - certainly too little to late. Worldwide right now, there are 64 nuclear reactors under construction, as reported by Dr Sama Bilbao y León, Director General of the World Nuclear Association. I assure you that her role as a scientist and engineer goes far beyond picking lint out of her navel to credulously report wishful thinking based on university press releases. She's on the front line of trying to save the world.

I'm pleased to report that people like my son, and many thousands of other highly educated, highly trained engineers are pushing back to confront and perhaps overcome the ignorance and stupidity that prevented nuclear energy from doing what it might have done. It's not an easy task, of course. As we've seen in politics, and certainly in the field of energy, ignorance is extremely powerful, but I'm pleased that there are people like my son, his colleagues, and educated people trained for nuclear energy across the whole world, who are confronting that ignorance and working to move the world beyond it.

Thanks for asking.

[Progressive dog]

4. Salt is a pretty common subastance on earth.

Those plastics are only good if you keep them away from salt.

[hatrack]

5. I know it's not your headline . . .

But it's an utterly ridiculous headline.

[OKIsItJustMe]

6. Yeah...

I’ve got to agree with you…