Using sunlight to recycle black plastics

"Simple, visible light irradiation holds the potential to transform the chemical recycling of plastics..."

27-Nov-2024 - Not all plastics are equal — some types and colors are easier to recycle than others. For instance, black foam and black coffee lids, which are often made of polystyrene, usually end up in landfills because color additives lead to ineffective sorting. Now, researchers report in ACS Central ...

Researchers develop innovative battery recycling method

30-Jul-2024 - A research team at Rice University led by James Tour, the T.T. and W.F. Chao Professor of Chemistry and professor of materials science and nanoengineering, is tackling the environmental issue of efficiently recycling lithium ion batteries amid their increasing use. The team has pioneered a new ...

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 ...

The future of recycling could one day mean dissolving plastic with electricity

The method it’s simple enough that you can watch the plastic break apart in front of your eyes

10-Jul-2023 - Chemists at the University of Colorado Boulder have developed a new way to recycle a common type of plastic found in soda bottles and other packaging. The team’s method relies on electricity and some nifty chemical reactions, and it’s simple enough that you can watch the plastic break apart in ...

Finally: Resistant plastic can be recycled

New milestone: researchers recycle Nylon-6 at mild temperatures and without toxic chemicals

21-Dec-2022 - Nylon-6 is a tough, non-biodegradable plastic that cannot be recycled by conventional methods. A new way has now been introduced by a team from the USA in the journal Angewandte Chemie: with an easily accessible lanthanum trisamido catalyst, Nylon-6 can be depolymerized highly selectively, nearly ...

Researchers recycles previously unrecyclable plastic

U-Michigan team discovered a way to chemically recycle PVC into usable material

06-Dec-2022 - PVC, or polyvinyl chloride, is one of the most produced plastics in the United States and the third highest by volume in the world. PVC makes up a vast amount of plastics we use on a daily basis. Much of the plastic used in hospital equipment—tubing, blood bags, masks and more—is PVC, as is most ...

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 ...

Plastics of the future will live many past lives, thanks to chemical recycling

One day in the not-too-distant future, the plastics in our satellites, cars and electronics may all be living their second, 25th or 250th lives

28-Sep-2022 - New research from the University of Colorado Boulder, published in Nature Chemistry, details how a class of durable plastics widely used in the aerospace and microelectronics industries can be chemically broken down into their most basic building blocks and then formed once again into the same ...

Wind turbine blades could someday be recycled into sweet treats

New turbine material by combining glass fibers with a plant-derived polymer and a synthetic one

25-Aug-2022 - Wind power is an increasingly popular form of renewable energy. However, when it’s time to replace the huge turbine blades that convert wind into electricity, disposal is a problem. Now, scientists report a new composite resin suitable for making these behemoths that could later be recycled into ...

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 ...