Research shows table salt could be the secret ingredient for better chemical recycling

Table salt as the key to the plastics recycling revolution?

12-Sep-2023 - Muhammad Rabnawaz, an associate professor in Michigan State University’s top-ranked School of Packaging and recent inductee into theNational Academy of Inventors, has always believed that the most brilliant solution is also the simplest. That belief is reflected in his team’s new publication in ...

Novel process extends life cycle of valuable catalysts: A greener option for chemical manufacturers

Electrochemical approach offers a solution to the decades-long challenge of recycling homogeneous catalysts

25-Oct-2022 - Imagine a typical recycling plant. Now imagine that the plant is a chemistry lab, and the crushed soda cans and waist-high stacks of junk mail have been replaced by microscopic structures worth tens of thousands of dollars per gram. A team of researchers from the University of Illinois ...

Plastic upcycling: From waste to fuel for less

Problem plastics could be diverted from landfills and converted into fuel sources with new technology

25-Aug-2022 - A plastics recycling innovation that does more with less, presented at the American Chemical Society fall meeting in Chicago, simultaneously increases conversion to useful products while using less of the precious metal ruthenium. “The key discovery we report is the very low metal load,” said ...

Going platinum: A non-toxic catalyst for clean, re-usable water

New treatment for harmful aldehydes in wastewater

20-Jun-2022 - Platinum has set a new “gold standard” in jewelry, and now it’s about to upscale the quality of your water. As wastewater treatment for potable – drinkable – reuse becomes a more viable and popular option to address water shortages, the question of what harmful byproducts might form in treatment ...

Step toward a Circular Economy?

Catalytic deconstruction of PET with zirconium metal–organic framework

11-May-2022 - Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is one of the most common plastics. Discarded PET most often ends up in landfills or in the environment because the rate of recycling remains low. In the journal Angewandte Chemie, a research team has now reported a zirconium-based metal–organic framework material ...

A first-of-its-kind catalyst mimics natural processes to break down plastics

The new catalyst is able to process polymers widely used in things like plastic grocery bags, milk jugs, shampoo bottles, toys, and food containers

22-Oct-2020 - While plastics recycling is not new science, current processes don't make it economically worthwhile-- waste plastics get "down-cycled" into lower grade, less useful material. It's a challenge that continues to be an obstacle in tackling a growing global pollution crisis in single use plastics. A ...

New water splitting catalyst could make it easier to generate solar fuel

28-Jan-2019 - Water splitting, the process of harvesting solar energy to generate energy-dense fuels, could be simplified thanks to new research including faculty at Binghamton University, State University of New York. "The key idea is to generate a solar fuel: hydrogen gas, which can be burnt to release ...

Adapting natural membrane to make hydrogen fuel from water

14-Jan-2019 - A chemical reaction pathway central to plant biology have been adapted to form the backbone of a new process that converts water into hydrogen fuel using energy from the sun. In a recent study from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory, scientists have combined two ...

Manganese may finally solve hydrogen fuel cells' catalyst problem

Widely available and inexpensive, the metal could lead to a renewable energy boom

01-Nov-2018 - Manganese is known for making stainless steel and aluminum soda cans. Now, researchers say the metal could advance one of the most promising sources of renewable energy: hydrogen fuel cells. In a study a University at Buffalo-led research team reports on catalysts made from the widely available ...

Modern alchemists are making chemistry greener

18-Jun-2018 - Ancient alchemists tried to turn lead and other common metals into gold and platinum. Modern chemists in Paul Chirik's lab at Princeton are transforming reactions that have depended on environmentally unfriendly precious metals, finding cheaper and greener alternatives to replace platinum, ...