White House recognizes
IBM Research scientist for green chemistry breakthrough.
What is Green Chemistry
Green chemistry is the application of chemicals and chemical processes to reduce or eliminate the negative environmental impacts of pollution.
The use and production of these chemicals may involve reducing waste products in industrial settings; replacing tin-based components in cosmetics, nylons and polyesters with non-toxic polymers; and making plastic recycling more efficient. |
Green chemistry pioneers
Motivated by a desire to generate new classes of metal-free plastics for microelectronic applications, Hedrick and Waymouth first focused their efforts on ring-opening polymerization – a strategy dominated by metal oxide or metal hydroxide catalysts that allows larger polymer chains to form. They have shown that these organic catalysts not only exhibit activities that rival the most active metal-based catalysts, but by virtue of their novel linking mechanisms, provide access to polymer architectures that are difficult to access by conventional approaches.
Plastics are ubiquitous and useful modern materials, but
their widespread utility and indiscriminate disposal has also left an adverse
and enduring environmental legacy.
Hedrick and Waymouth’s new methods for generating biodegradable and biocompatible plastics could, for example, eliminate the leaching of antimony, the toxic metal from commercial poly ethyleneterephthalate (PET) commonly used to make water bottles.
Hedrick and Waymouth’s new methods for generating biodegradable and biocompatible plastics could, for example, eliminate the leaching of antimony, the toxic metal from commercial poly ethyleneterephthalate (PET) commonly used to make water bottles.
Achieving this vision, however, will require:
- The conversion of renewable resources to products with the cost and performance equal or superior to existing materials.
- The development of more environmentally benign catalytic processes.
- The implementation of recycling or biodegradation strategies that would enable a closed-loop life cycle for these materials.
Catalysis is a foundational pillar for sustainable chemical processes
and the discovery of highly active, environmentally benign catalytic processes
is a central goal of green chemistry. Environmentally sustainable plastics,
smarter recycling methods, new ways to deliver medicine
– these are all areas that could benefit from these recent discoveries in green
polymer chemistry.
This plastic could be used in agriculture?
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