December 17, 2024 – Revolutionary New Plastic Developed to Combat Marine Microplastic Pollution
In a groundbreaking discovery, a team led by Professor Takuzo Aida from the Center for Emergent Matter Science (CEMS) at the RIKEN research institute in Japan has successfully developed a novel plastic that is both durable and capable of decomposing in seawater. This innovation holds promise in effectively tackling the issue of marine microplastic pollution. The findings of this research were published in the prestigious journal Science on November 22.
Traditional plastics have long been a target for replacement due to their unsustainability and environmental harm. Although some recyclable and biodegradable plastics have emerged, their degradation in marine environments remains unresolved. Take polylactic acid (PLA) as an example; this biodegradable plastic, once entering the ocean, often fails to decompose due to its insolubility in water, ultimately contributing to microplastic pollution and posing a threat to aquatic life and the food chain.
Professor Aida’s team has ingeniously leveraged the properties of supramolecular plastics to overcome this challenge. According to industry sources, the new plastic is created by combining two ionic monomers that can form cross-linked salt bridges. One of these monomers is sodium hexametaphosphate, a common food additive, while the other consists of several guanidine salt cations. Both monomers can be metabolized by bacteria, ensuring the plastic’s biodegradability once decomposed into its constituent parts.
The research team discovered that the salt bridge structure of this novel plastic rapidly disintegrates in electrolyte environments such as seawater, allowing the plastic to completely decompose within hours. Furthermore, the plastic is non-toxic, non-flammable, and can be reshaped like other thermoplastics at temperatures above 120°C. By adjusting the types of guanidine sulfates, the team can produce plastics with varying hardness and tensile strength to suit different applications.
The new plastic also excels in recyclability. After dissolving the plastic in saltwater, the team can recover a significant portion of the sodium hexametaphosphate and guanidine in powder form, making the recycling process simple and efficient. In soil, the plastic sheets can also completely degrade within a short period, providing phosphorus and nitrogen elements to the soil and enabling resource recycling.
Professor Aida stated, “The new material we have created is not only strong, stable, recyclable, and multifunctional but, most importantly, it does not produce microplastic pollution. This offers us new ideas and methods for solving the problem of plastic pollution.