Page 93 - Plastics News August 2024

IN THE NEWS

methods, the process requires much less energy. According to Assoc Prof Han Soo Sen of NTU’s
School of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, and
First, the plastics are dissolved in the organic Biotechnology, who led the study, the break-
solvent called dichloromethane, making the plas- through not only provides a potential answer to
tic polymer chains more accessible to the pho- the growing plastic waste problem but also reus-
tocatalyst. The solution is then mixed with the es the carbon trapped in these plastics instead
catalyst and flowed through transparent tubes
where LED light shines on it.

The light provides the initial energy to break the
carbon-carbon bonds in a two-step process with
the help of the vanadium catalyst. The plastics’
carbon-hydrogen bonds are oxidised, which
makes them less stable and more reactive. After
that, the carbon-carbon bonds are broken down.

The resulting end products are compounds
such as formic acid and benzoic acid, which can
be used to make other chemicals employed in
fuel cells and liquid organic hydrogen carriers
(LOHCs) – organic compounds that can absorb of releasing it into the atmosphere as green-
and release hydrogen through chemical reac- house gases through incineration.
tions. LOHCs are being explored by the energy Source – Recycling Magazine
sector as a storage media for hydrogen.

Innovative Applications of Plastics in Emerging

Technologies

lastics was widely used because of its
flexibility, ability to endure as a material
Pand also due to its cheap nature. Despite
this, its uses are now expanding towards exclu-
sive new areas in possibilities created by mod-
ern technologies. The use of plastic is revealed
in this article as being applied in bit astonishing
ways across various fields and how these ad-
vancements are shaping the future.

1. Flexible Electronics

Organic electronics or flexible electronics are
the new generation inventions which are chang-

August 2024 PLASTICS NEWS 95