A new kind of plastic is decomposed by ultraviolet 3 hours

The team of chemists and researchers of the University of North Dakota has developed a technique for producing plastics from biomass, which can be safely disposed of by ultraviolet radiation of a certain frequency.

As the starting material to create a new type of plastic used such molecule as biological material plant seeds of oilseeds, lignin (complex polymer compounds characterized by stiff plant cell walls), cellulose and sucrose, of which formed the building blocks in future be polymerized in the new material.

As an experiment, researchers have plastic raw material for which was the usual fructose. Subsequently, the test material by irradiating ultraviolet light with a wavelength of 350 nm, the team has to have been degraded biological plastic to soluble compounds.

Although in reality, to commercialize new technique is still very far and the quality produced by "organic" plastic raises questions, recycling of plastic waste without the use of chemicals and industrial units looks very promising. For comparison, we can estimate recycling technique proposed in 2010: during the pyrolysis in a fluidized bed reactor at a temperature of about 500 ° C and without access of oxygen to form a degradable plastic wax, styrene, terephthalic acid, methyl methacrylate and carbon.

According to информации US National Park Service, the term of the expansion of the plastic bottle is 450 years old.

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Source: geektimes.ru/post/242086/