Scientists and engineers create the 'perfect plastic'

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-09/uol-sae092811.php

Public release date: 29-Sep-2011

Contact: Richard Mellor
[e-mail]
44-011-334-34196
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/">University of Leeds

Scientists and engineers create the 'perfect plastic'

…

The breakthrough will allow experts to create the 'perfect plastic' with specific uses and properties by using a high-tech 'recipe book.' It will also increase our ability to recycle plastics. The research paper is published in the prestigious journal Science on Thursday.

The paper's authors form part of the Microscale Polymer Processing project, a collaboration between academics and industry experts which has spent 10 years exploring how to better build giant 'macromolecules.' These long tangled molecules are the basic components of plastics and dictate their properties during the melting, flowing and forming processes in plastics production.

Low-density polyethylenes (LDPEs) are used in trays and containers, lightweight car parts, recyclable packaging and electrical goods. Up until now, industry developed a plastic then found a use for it, or tried hundreds of different "recipes" to see which worked. This method could save the manufacturing industry time, energy and money.

The mathematical models used put together two pieces of computer code. The first predicts how polymers will flow based on the connections between the string-like molecules they are made from. A second piece of code predicts the shapes that these molecules will take when they are created at a chemical level. These models were enhanced by experiments on carefully synthesised 'perfect polymers' created in labs of the Microscale Polymer Processing project.

…

http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1207060

[eppur_se_muova]

1. Where's the part about recyclability ? Biodegradability ?

There's plenty of plastic floating in the ocean. Making it "perfect" plastic doesn't help.

[Itchinjim]

2. First paragraph.

[eppur_se_muova]

6. Oh, OK, I'll take their word for it. No explanation needed. nt

[Itchinjim]

7. Well, why don't you research it and get back to us, ok?

And we'll take your word for it.

[ehrnst]

3. What could possibly go wrong?

:eyes:

[JohnWxy]

4. designed based on mathematical models - instead of cooking up a batch and seeing what you got!

very cool.

[GeorgeGist]

5. Actual article title and abstract.

Linking Models of Polymerization and Dynamics to Predict Branched Polymer Structure and Flow.

Abstract

We present a predictive scheme connecting the topological structure of highly branched entangled polymers, with industrial-level complexity, to the emergent viscoelasticity of the polymer melt. The scheme is able to calculate the linear and nonlinear viscoelasticity of a stochastically branched “high-pressure free radical” polymer melt as a function of the chemical kinetics of its formation. The method combines numerical simulation of polymerization with the tube/entanglement physics of polymer dynamics extended to fully nonlinear response. We compare calculations for a series of low-density polyethylenes with experiments on structural and viscoelastic properties. The method provides a window onto the molecular processes responsible for the optimized rheology of these melts, connecting fundamental science to process in complex flow, and opens up the in silico design of new materials.


emphasis mine.