Page 53 - Plastics News February 2023

TECHNOLOGY

tics—at moderate temperatures of of Greifswald), describing the chal- satile properties and are also widely
no more than 40°C and without the lenge of this project. applied, for instance for the coating
use of chemical reagents. of fibers and as foils for packaging.
“With this ground-breaking discov-
Prof. Dr. Uwe Bornscheuer’s team at ery we now have the precondition to So far, no mature processes exist for
the University of Greifswald’s Insti- tailor-design these biocatalysts using the degradation of PVA. Here, the
tute of Biochemistry, together with methods of protein engineering that team of Professor Bornscheuer was
scientists from the company Coves- aim to develop an industrial recy- also able to develop the basic prin-
tro (Leverkusen), has now identified cling of polyurethanes,” explains Prof. ciples for a biotechnological process
the key enzymes, which are able to Dr. Uwe Bornscheuer (University together with a polymer expert from
degrade polyurethane into its building of Greifswald) further. “Using these the University College Dublin (Ire-
blocks after a chemical pretreatment. newly identified enzymes, we get land) and scientists from Leipzig. The
much closer to our target of a circular degradation of PVA could be achieved
“The search for these specific biocat- through the elegant combination of
alysts was very laborious as we had to economy for the polymer industry,” three different enzymes, which are
screen about two million candidates adds Dr. Gernot Jäger, head of the then able to modify the polymer in a
in order to discover the first three Competence Center for Biotechnol- stepwise fashion to obtain fragments
enzymes, which have been proven to ogy at Covestro AG (Leverkusen). of the polymer, which then can be
break the special chemical bond pre- used for its recycling.
sent in polyurethanes,” explains Ph.D. Polyvinyl alcohols (PVA) have ver-
student Yannick Branson (University

Mechna Mechnano Introduces New Nano-Tube-Based High-Temperature 3D
Printing Material
tom nano-uniform ESD parts which and isolates CNTs into discrete tubes.
can endure multiple cycles of a high- The resulting CNTs are capable of de-
temperature wave soldering process livering previously untapped proper-
(245°C) employing Mechnano’s pro- ties. Mechnano accomplishes this by
prietary carbon nanotube technology introducing molecules into the side-
(CNT); MechT, which helps dissipate walls that enhance material proper-
static. ties and molecules into the tubes that
When manufactured, the CNTs get add properties.
clumped together into balls of mil- The new resin, C-Lite, can be 3D
rizona-based 3D printing start-up lions or billions of tubes. When added printed with a wide range of vat pho-
AMechnano has created a novel to materials, these clumps are ineffi- topolymerization systems, including
high-temperature, rigid electrostatic cient and unable to harness the ben- LCD, DLP, and SLA, enabling ‘quick-
discharge (ESD) material in collabora- efits of nano-materials. Separating turn’ part fabrication with ‘ultra-high
tion with ceramic additive manufac- CNTs is tricky, as they re-clump, i.e., accuracy’. Dane Yoner, Trilogy Di-
turing materials provider Tethon3D. agglomerate, once added to a mate- rector of Business Development, ex-
rial. After over a decade of research plained that Mechnano-enhanced ma-
The 3D printable resin was created to and development, Mechnano claims terials like C-Lite for reflow fixtures
address the challenge of creating cus- its proprietary technology detangles and other tooling will help the firm re-

PLASTICS NEWS 55
February 2023