Page 52 - Plastics News April 2023

TECHNOLOGY

New Approach to Characterizing Nanomaterials

Researchers from Paderborn University, the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), the National
Metrology Institute of Germany, the Politecnico di Torino, Italy, and the Istituto Nazionale di Ricerca Met-
rologica (INRiM), Italy’s national metrology institute, have investigated sequential infiltration synthesis in
nanostructured polymers.

n doing so, they want to increase Dr. Jörg Lindner, Professor, Nano- new measurement methods and size
Ithe likelihood of characterizing ma- structuring - Nanoanalytics - Photonic standards so that smaller structures
terial properties at the smallest scale. Materials, Paderborn University can be analyzed.”
Future computer chips, energy con- To continue this progress, nonde- “Block copolymers can help here,
version and storage techniques, and structive techniques for character- too—but only after the chemical dif-
molecular sieves, will all require ma- izing material properties must be ferences between the involved poly-
terials with structures in the range of expanded as part of a larger initiative mer types are increased by selectively
just a few nanometers. The study’s comprising co-authors from partner modifying one of the polymers. Se-
results have now been featured as the institutions INRiM, Politecnico di To- lectively integrating aluminum oxide
cover article in ACS Applied Polymer rino, and PTB. using sequential infiltration synthesis
Materials. makes it possible to create nanostruc-
Block copolymers enable future-ori-
The team at Paderborn led by re- ented processes for further miniatur- tures that can be used to test these
searcher Prof. Jörg Lindner works izing next-generation microelectronic new measurement processes,” Dr.
with nanostructured block copoly- components by enabling the develop- Lindner concluded.
mers, which are interlinked polymer ment of incredibly small structures on The projects 16ENV07 AEROMET
chains that can “self-organize” into semiconductor surfaces. and 19ENV08 AEROMET II provided
regular patterns, facilitating a wide funding for a part of this study. These
range of applications. Dr. Lindner stated, “The structure projects have funding from the Euro-
sizes that can be achieved here are
Controlling the self-organization of limited only by the length of the pean Union’s Horizon 2020 research
block copolymers has advanced rap- polymer chains, so they can be even and innovation program in addition
idly in recent years. to the EMPIR program, which is co-
smaller than the structures that are
Our ability to control the self-organi- laboriously produced through con- financed by the Participating States.
zation of block copolymers has made ventional techniques. The advances in
rapid progress in recent years. miniaturization also create a need for

Low concentration CO2 can be reused in biodegradable plastic precursor
using artificial photosynthesis

successfully convert more than 60% able plastic could not only reduce
of waste acetone into 3-hydroxybu- CO2 emissions but also provide a way
tyrate, a material used to manufacture of reusing laboratory and industrial
biodegradable plastic. The results waste acetone. Their findings have
were obtained using low-concentra- been published in the journal Green
tion CO2, equivalent to exhaust gas, Chemistry.
and powered by light equivalent to Poly-3-hydroxybutyrate a biodegrad-
sunlight for 24 hours.
saka Metropolitan University able plastic is a strong water-resistant
Oscientists have developed a pro- The researchers expect that this in- polyester often used in packaging ma-
cess using artificial photosynthesis to novative way of producing biodegrad- terials, made from 3-hydroxybutyrate

52 PLASTICS NEWS April 2023