Making more functional biopolymers
Whether its contents are heavy duty deli takeout for dinner or your child canada goose uk outlet new favorite toy, plastic packaging often goose outlet canada withstands a good deal of abuse before it reaches the landfill.
Although properties buy canada goose jacket cheap such Canada Goose Coats On Sale as strength, toughness, rigidity and temperature resistance make petroleum based plastics for packaging so desirable, as trash, they can take a long time canada goose outlet jackets if ever to degrade.
formulated for durability, in a sense, but are not sustainable or environmentally friendly, says Lih Sheng (Tom) Turng, a professor of mechanical engineering at the canada goose factory outlet University of Wisconsin Madison.
In response to increased environmental concerns uk canada goose outlet and, more recently, canada goose outlet in usa skyrocketing oil prices, Turng research team canada goose store is working to perfect bio based plastics that hold up well in use, yet break down canada goose outlet quickly in a landfill.
Made from renewable resources such as corn or soybeans, these bio based polymers for plastics are commonly used in products ranging from composting bags and mulch film to baby diapers.
help design the canada goose outlet uk materials so that they have good performance during their service, but after the service, under the proper environment, they will decompose and produce carbon dioxide, water and official canada goose outlet other biomass, says Turng. carbon dioxide will be used by the growing plant, thus balancing the release of Canada Goose online carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas contributing to global warming. About 30 percent of plastics manufactured are used for packaging, says Turng. if you can actually replace those plastics with bio based polymers, it would be a big relief for the environment, he says.
However, current bio based polymers offer only biodegradability and not functions such as strength and heat resistance, which limit their widespread use in canadian goose jacket packaging, says Turng. example, if you ship a material in a container in the Arizona desert, the temperature can exceed canada goose outlet black friday 70 degrees Celsius inside the truck, he says. the product is made canada goose black friday sale of or packaged with bio based plastics, the material may deform simply due to the heat. Collaborating with UW Milwaukee Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering Sarah Gong and UW Madison graduate students https://www.rheingoenheim-info.de Adam Kramschuster and Alex Chandra, Turng is hoping to enhance the material properties of bio based plastics.
The group is incorporating additives such as nano clay, carbon nanotubes and natural fibers into bio based polymers to improve key properties Canada Goose Online such as strength and heat resistance. In addition, the researchers are studying ways that they can exploit processes like extrusion and injection molding to influence bio based polymer properties and their microstructure. Already, they are working with manufacturers to incorporate their findings, primarily into polymers cheap canada goose for plastic packaging.
The group also is studying ways to use bio based polymer technology for medical applications. For example, says Turng, if you fracture a bone, a biodegradable material could stabilize the bone or provide a scaffold on which new tissue could grow. The researchers are perfecting techniques through which they can make polymers with a microcellular structure that mimics bone. can make this kind of plastic with the proper microstructure, he canada goose outlet canada says.
National Science Foundation funds and a grant through canada goose outlet store the UW Madison Graduate School Industrial and Economic Development Research Program are supporting the group research.