Polymers

Sir David Attenborough backs process that recycles all types of plastic

IMechE: Construction has begun on a new plastic recycling facility aimed at ‘solving the global plastic crisis’. The Teesside facility, which will recycle all forms of plastic, is the…

Ketchup Is Not Just a Condiment: It Is Also a Non-Newtonian Fluid

Scientific American: “People [experience] the fluid element to be … not yet solidified but remaining open to outside influences.”—Sensitive Chaos: The Creation of Flowing From of Water and Air, by Theodor Schwenk; Rudolf Steiner Press, 1965. Ketchup is famous for being…

Bioinspired material puts the squeeze on plastics

Materials Today: A bioinspired composite material made from all-natural raw ingredients could offer a possible alternative to petroleum-based structural plastics, according to researchers from the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei [Guan et al., Nature Communications (2020) 11:5401,…

Malika Jeffries-EL is using synthesis to find a better blue OLED

C&EN: Malika Jeffries-EL is on a mission to find a better blue. Her medium is not paint or pastels but organic light-emitting materials found in cell phones, TVs, and other electronic devices. In her lab at Boston University, she and…