A team from the UK’s University of Birmingham and Duke University has developed a new kind of plastic using sugar alcohols as building blocks that’s both recyclable and biodegradable. Two new polymers were created using sugar-based starting materials. One is stretchable like rubber, and the other is touchable but ductile, like conventional plastic. Iodide and isomannide are extracted from sugar alcohols to make them.
The researchers found that iodide-based polymers showed stiffness and malleability similar to conventional plastic as well as strength comparable to high-grade engineering plastics like Nylon-6. The only difference between iodide and isomannide is the 3D spatial orientation of the two bonds called stereochemistry. The former exhibited similar strength and toughness, while the latter showed high elasticity. After pulverization, the materials maintained their mechanical properties, which is common for recycling plastics.
Using computer modeling to simulate how polymer chains pack and interact to produce different polymer properties. Sugar-based compounds have a 3D shape that allows different movements and interactions among the long chains as well as a huge impact on their physical properties. Researchers realized that they could get the best of both worlds by creating copolymers using both iodide and isomannide units, which allows for unique shapes of sugars to become easily degradable without changing the material’s properties excessively.
Due to their similar chemical properties, they can easily blend together and produce comparable or improved results. Professor Andrew Dove, who led the research team from Birmingham, said in a statement, ‘This study really shows what is possible with sustainable plastics. While we need to do more work to reduce costs and study the potential environmental impact of these materials, in the long term it is possible that these sorts of materials could replace petrochemically-sourced plastics that don’t readily degrade in the environment’.
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