Chemicals & Materials

Researchers at the University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science have developed a new design that appears to rewrite the textbook on polymer engineering.

“We are addressing a fundamental challenge that has been thought to be impossible to solve since the invention of vulcanized rubber in 1839,” said Liheng Cai, an assistant professor of materials science and engineering, and chemical engineering.

That’s when Charles Goodyear accidentally discovered that heating natural rubber with sulfur created chemical crosslinks between the strand-like rubber molecules. This crosslinking process creates a polymer network, transforming the sticky rubber, which melts and flows in the heat, into a durable, elastic material.

Ever since, it’s been believed that if you want to make a polymer network material stiff, you have to sacrifice some stretchability.

A research team led by Associate Professor Yeo Boon Siang, Jason from the Department of Chemistry at NUS has found that copper catalysts, after a simple modification with iodide anions, are highly efficacious for converting acetylene to 1,3-butadiene. The findings were published in the journal Nature Catalysis.

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MDI is a key raw material for polyurethane, a signature material used in numerous fields such as auto parts, bedding and furniture, insulation for homes and fridges, elastic fibers, and various adhesives. Demand for MDI is projected to grow at an annual rate of 6 percent going forward on account of policy measures around the globe to improve residential insulation as a means of global warming suppression, as well as due to the heightened demand accompanying economic growth.

Bridgestone Americas announced it received a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization Office. Bridgestone will design, build and operate a pilot plant that will advance an innovative, potentially more sustainable and cost-effective approach to obtaining butadiene from ethanol. The project will evaluate the economic and commercial viability, as well as the carbon footprint, of converting ethanol to butadiene.

Researchers at the University of Michigan have developed a new artificial photosynthesis system that can bind two carbon atoms together into a hydrocarbon. The resulting product is ethylene and this method has demonstrated a remarkable ability to produce it efficiently, abundantly, and consistently compared to other artificial photosynthesis systems currently in use. The resulting ethylene, an important ingredient of many plastics, with much higher efficiency, yield and longevity than competing systems is a key step toward reusing CO2 to make sustainable fuels.

The family of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) is facing intense scrutiny. A reporting rule will take effect in the United States in 2026, while Europe has actually been considering a sweeping, cross-industry ban on these substances since early last year. The implications of such a ban on fluoropolymers would be particularly critical, as a discontinuation of these high-performance materials would drastically impact many industries. But what kinds of challenges would emerge in the search for adequate substitutes? This was the focus of a recent study by the Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials (IWM) in cooperation with materials experts from the Freudenberg Group.