Green Chemistry: Sustainable p-xylene production

Green, sustainable and biodegradable polymers

18-Sep-2020 - Lemonade, juice and mineral water often come in PET bottles. While these are practical and functional, their production is complex and not necessarily sustainable. The starting material for terephthalic acid, which is used to produce saturated polyesters such as PET (Polyethylene terephthalate), ...

Largest Synthetic Polysaccharide Assembled

Linear 100-mer polysaccharide within 188 hours

05-May-2020 - Chemists at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces (Potsdam, Germany) have set a milestone by preparing the two largest carbohydrates ever assembled. Using an Automated Glycan Assembly (AGA) instrument originally developed at the institute they prepared a linear 100-mer and achieved ...

Stiff fibres spun from slime

Nanoparticles from the secretion of velvet worms form polymer fibres that can be recycled in water

18-Oct-2017 - Nature is an excellent teacher – even for material scientists. Researchers, including scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, have now observed a remarkable mechanism by which polymer materials are formed. In order to capture prey, velvet worms shoot out a sticky ...

Prof. Scott R. White honoured with the Humboldt Research Award

04-Feb-2013 - Scott R. White, professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is a world-leading expert in material science. He is well-known for pioneering the development of self-healing polymerbased materials. As a member of the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and ...