Energy & Green Tech
What to do with the non-biodegradable plastics used in food packaging and agriculture? Researchers are turning their attention to microorganisms, enzymes, earthworms and insects to break down plastics.
Dec 2, 2021
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66
Energy & Green Tech
In 2018, 61.8 million metric tons of plastic waste was produced in the European Union with only 9.4 million metric ton recycled. This constitutes a huge amount of plastic waste, which rapidly needs to be addressed. One solution ...
Nov 24, 2021
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7
Computer Sciences
Uncovering the mechanisms of learning via synaptic plasticity is a critical step towards understanding how our brains function and building truly intelligent, adaptive machines. Researchers from the University of Bern propose ...
Nov 11, 2021
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165
Energy & Green Tech
As she walked her dog Luna near her northern Israel town, Elishya Ben Meir collected litter that had been reported through a new app which turns garbage into goods.
Nov 10, 2021
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9
Energy & Green Tech
A team of researchers from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Harvard University believes that the plastic amassing in floating islands in the oceans could be used to power the ships ...
Machine learning & AI
A joint research team led by Xu Bo from the Institute of Automation and Mu-Ming Poo from the Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, have discovered that self-backpropagation, ...
Oct 22, 2021
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328
Energy & Green Tech
Researchers in the BOTTLE Consortium, including from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the University of Portsmouth, have identified using enzymes as a more sustainable ...
Jul 20, 2021
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937
Consumer & Gadgets
While the pandemic has restricted us from doing many activities we like, household hobbies such as DIY, baking and crafts have become more popular. Now there's a way to combine all of these skills to create something entirely ...
Jun 11, 2021
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7
Engineering
Researchers from the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV) have come up with and patented a new system for manufacturing beams that aims to revolutionize the architecture, construction and civil engineering sectors. They ...
Mar 1, 2021
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27
Engineering
With the ever-increasing worldwide mass production of plastic, the inefficiency of current plastic recycling strategies has raised several environmental, societal, and economic concerns. Magnetic density separation (MDS) ...
Feb 26, 2021
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A plastic material is any of a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic organic solids used in the manufacture of industrial products. Plastics are typically polymers of high molecular mass, and may contain other substances to improve performance and/or reduce production costs. Monomers of plastic are either natural or synthetic organic compounds.
The word plastic is derived from the Greek πλαστικός (plastikos) meaning capable of being shaped or molded, from πλαστός (plastos) meaning molded. It refers to their malleability, or plasticity during manufacture, that allows them to be cast, pressed, or extruded into a variety of shapes—such as films, fibers, plates, tubes, bottles, boxes, and much more.
The common word plastic should not be confused with the technical adjective plastic, which is applied to any material which undergoes a permanent change of shape (plastic deformation) when strained beyond a certain point. Aluminum which is stamped or forged, for instance, exhibits plasticity in this sense, but is not plastic in the common sense; in contrast, in their finished forms, some plastics will break before deforming and therefore are not plastic in the technical sense.
There are two types of plastics: thermoplastics and thermosetting polymers. Thermoplastics are the plastics that do not undergo chemical change in their composition when heated and can be moulded again and again; examples are polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, polyvinyl chloride and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE). Thermosets can melt and take shape once; after they have solidified, they stay solid.
The raw materials needed to make most plastics come from petroleum and natural gas.
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA
