Polymer surfaces and interfaces have received much attention in industrial fields because of their functional properties, including appearance, surface protection, reflectivity, anti-fouling, ...

Controlling the rate at which polymers break down is essential for developing sustainable materials. Conventional approaches—which rely on introducing labile and cleavable bonds—often face an inherent ...

Plastic pollution is an evolving global environmental crisis. More than 90% of all plastics manufactured end up polluting the environment, where they can harm ecosystems and impact human health. This ...

Chemical additions to plastic that mimic natural polymers like DNA can create materials that break down in days, months or years rather than littering the environment for centuries. Researchers hope ...

To upcycle the polymers of discarded plastics, chemists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory invented a way to generate new macromolecules with more valuable properties than those of the starting material ...

Artistic rendering of the new plastic. Cross linked salt bridges visible in the plastic outside the seawater give it its structure and strength. In seawater (and in soil, not depicted), resalting ...