IBM embarks on research to improve plastics recycling

A team of researchers from IBM Almaden Research Center and Stanford University has embarked on a research to develop new types of organic catalysts that can build up and break down plastics in a more sustainable way. The team has developed a potentially revolutionary method of producing environmentally-friendly plastic from plants that would allow plastics to be repeatedly recycled, instead of only once as in the case with petroleum-based plastics made using metal oxide catalysts, which ultimately ends up in a landfill. IBM is working with scientists at King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia to put the discovery to work in the recycling of plastics used in food and beverage containers. The findings will be detailed in a paper "Organocatalysis: Opportunities and Challenges for Polymer Synthesis" to be published in the American Chemical Society journal. Macromolecules. ww.ibm.comSaldos - Entrega gratuita