A sea change for plastic pollution: new material biodegrades in ocean water

Marine microorganisms found to feast on new polyurethane materials used in a startup's sustainable shoes

26-Sep-2022 - Plastics, now ubiquitous in the modern world, have become a rising threat to human and environmental health. Around the planet, evidence of plastic pollution stretches from grocery bags in the deep sea to microplastics in our food supplies and even in our blood. Seeking solutions to counteract ...

Lefty or righty molecules lend a hand to material structures

Effort to build bottom-up chiral polymers with unique functions

14-Feb-2019 - As below, so above. That seems to be an operating principle for molecules that start with a basic chirality - or "handed-ness" -- and pass it on as they combine into larger structures. An international team that included Rice University materials scientist Edwin Thomas pried a new, fundamental ...

Getting rid of those plastic shopping bags - acquire chemical raw materials

Plastic waste could be turned into clean fuels, other products

08-Feb-2019 - The United Nations estimates that more than 8 million tons of plastics flow into the oceans each year. A new chemical conversion process could transform the world's polyolefin waste, a form of plastic, into useful products, such as clean fuels and other items. "Our strategy is to create a driving ...

A reconfigurable soft actuator

Transforming flat elastomers into 3D shapes

06-Feb-2019 - Mechanical systems, such as engines and motors, rely on two principal types of motions of stiff components: linear motion, which involves an object moving from one point to another in a straight line; and rotational motion, which involves an object rotating on an axis. Nature has developed far ...

Antireflection coating makes plastic invisible

31-Jan-2019 - Antireflection (AR) coatings on plastics have a multitude of practical applications, including glare reduction on eyeglasses, computer monitors and the display on your smart-phone when outdoors. Now, researchers at Penn State have developed an AR coating that improves on existing coatings to the ...

Process to 3D print piezoelectric materials developed

Could be used to develop intelligent materials and self-adaptive infrastructures and transducers

23-Jan-2019 - The piezoelectric materials that inhabit everything from our cell phones to musical greeting cards may be getting an upgrade thanks to work discussed. Xiaoyu 'Rayne' Zheng, assistant professor of mechanical engineering in the College of Engineering, and a member of the Macromolecules Innovation ...

Detecting light in a different dimension

Polymer nanostructures longer than wide make graphene a better light detector

14-Nov-2018 - Scientists from the Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN) have dramatically improved the response of graphene to light through self-assembling wire-like nanostructures that conduct electricity. The improvement could pave the way for the development of graphene-based detectors that can quickly ...

Tracking codes to authenticate genuine 3-D printed parts

23-Aug-2018 - The worldwide market for 3D-printed parts is a $5 billion business with a global supply chain involving the internet, email, and the cloud - creating a number of opportunities for counterfeiting and intellectual property theft. Flawed parts printed from stolen design files could produce dire ...

Testing the first biodegradable straws

23-Aug-2018 - A research team that includes partners from the University of Georgia New Materials Institute and the RWDC Environmental Stewardship Foundation will develop a fully biodegradable plastic straw thanks to an award from Singapore's Temasek Foundation Ecosperity. The $719,000 award represents the top ...

Squeezing nanocrystals in a liquid droplet into a solid-like state and back again

13-Aug-2018 - A team led by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) found a way to make a liquid-like state behave more like a solid, and then to reverse the process. They put a droplet of a liquid containing iron oxide nanocrystals into an oily liquid ...