A team of scientists has developed a type of polymer that is as strong as conventional plastics, yet fully breaks down in seawater without creating harmful microplastics.
The material, developed at the RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science (CEMS), is also non-toxic and non-flammable and can be reshaped as easily as other thermoplastics.
Two ionic monomers are combined to create the supramolecular plastic – a polymer with structures held together by reversible interactions. Both of the monomers used can be metabolized by bacteria, ensuring that the plastic is fully biodegradable once the bonds have been reversed.
The challenge was to find a way to retain this ‘reversable’ quality without compromising on durability. The team achieved this by creating selectively irreversible links in the structure that only break down when exposed to seawater.
By varying the types of sulfate used in the process, the researchers were able to generate plastics with a range of different qualities and tensile strengths, such as hard scratch resistant plastics or rubber silicone-like plastics. This means the new plastics have a potentially huge range of useful applications.
“With this new material, we have created a new family of plastics that are strong, stable, recyclable, can serve multiple functions, and importantly, do not generate microplastics,” says Takuzo Aida, leader of the research team.
The findings were published in the journal Science.
