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India invents an eco-friendly plastic degradation method
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20 Sep,2019
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Indian researchers have invented an eco-friendly method for degrading plastic. Simply placing the plastic in a 70-degree Celsius solution containing glucose and metal ions, and stirring continuously for several days, degrades the plastic into molecules.
A team led by researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras found that the new method can be used to degrade plastic materials such as polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE). The relevant research paper has been published in the American Chemical Society journal, Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering.
Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) is a high-performance material with heat resistance, chemical inertness, insulation stability, and low friction. Researchers first placed a magnetic stirrer coated with PTFE into a 70-degree Celsius solution containing metal ions and 1000 ppm glucose (1 ppm is one part per million) and stirred it continuously for 15 days.
Researchers subsequently found tiny fragments with bright red luminescence floating on the surface of the solution. Results showed that these bright particles contained molecular fragments of the PTFE polymer.
The study also found that PTFE did not exhibit this degradation phenomenon in the absence of stirring, glucose, or metal ions; the degradation rate decreased at room temperature; and the degradation of PTFE increased with increasing glucose concentration in the solution.
Researchers explained that PTFE may degrade into molecules through triboelectric degradation during continuous stirring. They cautioned that since many modern cooking utensils are coated with PTFE, similar chemical reactions may occur in cookware, leading to microplastics in food. Similarly, this triboelectric degradation process may also occur in the ocean, where there are large amounts of metal ions and waves provide continuous agitation, thus potentially becoming one of the pathways for the generation of marine microplastics.
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