Only 2 percent of the 78 million tons of manufactured plastics are currently recycled into similar products because polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), which account for two-thirds of the world’s plastics, have different chemical structures and cannot be efficiently repurposed together.
That could all change with a discovery by a Cornell University research team.
In this video, Geoffrey Coates, a professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Cornell University, explains how his research team created a new, multiblock polymer that, when added in small measure to a mix of the two otherwise incompatible materials, creates a new and mechanically tough polymer.
Not only does this tetrablock polymer show promise for improving recycling, it could spawn a whole new class of mechanically tough polymer blends.
