A study of 29 European lakes has found that some naturally-occurring lake bacteria grow faster and more efficiently on the remains of plastic bags than on natural matter like leaves and twigs.
Environment
Jul 26, 2022
3
285
Scientists have designed a new material system to overcome one of the biggest challenges in recycling consumer products: mixed-plastic recycling. Their achievement will help enable a much broader range of fully recyclable ...
Polymers
Jul 20, 2022
0
136
Human saliva may contain an enzyme which can decompose the plastic polyethylene terephthalate (PET). Researchers found the promising enzyme, a hydrolase, in a database containing human metagenome samples. As they report in ...
Biochemistry
Jun 29, 2022
0
691
If bioengineers can upcycle commodity plastics into higher-performance materials, they can establish sustained closed-loop manufacturing with broader industrial and environmental benefits. For example, upcycled plastics can ...
An enzyme variant created by engineers and scientists at The University of Texas at Austin can break down environment-throttling plastics that typically take centuries to degrade in just a matter of hours to days.
Polymers
Apr 27, 2022
19
1100
Less than 10% of the 380 million metrics tons of annually produced plastics are currently recycled in the U.S., creating a global environmental threat caused by plastic production and the absorption of millions of tons of ...
Polymers
Mar 21, 2022
2
130
Inspired by the bacteria-killing wings of insects like cicadas, scientists have developed a natural antibacterial texture for use on food packaging to improve shelf life and reduce waste. The lab-made nanotexture from an ...
Nanomaterials
Mar 21, 2022
0
592
Polymer science has made possible rubber tires, Teflon and Kevlar, plastic water bottles, nylon jackets among many other ubiquitous features of daily life. Elastic polymers, known as elastomers, can be stretched and released ...
Polymers
Oct 7, 2021
0
137
In a surprising discovery, an international team of researchers, led by scientists in the University of Minnesota Center for Quantum Materials, found that deformations in quantum materials that cause imperfections in the ...
Superconductivity
Oct 4, 2021
0
529
A team of researchers with members affiliated with institutions in Germany, Switzerland and the U.S. has created a model that they claim could be used to achieve net-zero-emission plastics by 2050. In their paper published ...
