U. researchers create self-destructing controllable plastic, reducing waste
Researchers from the Rutgers Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology have found a more sustainable solution to waste by creating self-destructing plastics that disintegrate at pre-programmed speeds.
Yuwei Gu, assistant professor in the Department and leader of the on-campus Gu Lab, noticed how durable plastics often last longer due to their strong polymer bonds. He and his team innovated a solution in which these bonds could break apart, either naturally or when exposed to certain triggers such as ultraviolet light.
“We wanted to tackle one of the biggest challenges of modern plastics. Our goal was to find a new chemical strategy that would allow plastics to degrade naturally under everyday conditions without the need for special treatments,” Gu said.
Gu and his lab team chronicled their findings in a study published in the November issue of the Nature Chemistry journal. Gu worked alongside a group of Rutgers scientists including doctoral students Shaozheng Yin and Rui Zhang, associate professors Lu Wang and N. Sanjeeva Murthy and former Rutgers undergraduate student Ruihao Zhou.
