May_June_2022_AMP_Digital

A D V A N C E D M A T E R I A L S & P R O C E S S E S | M A Y / J U N E 2 0 2 2 9 Majed. Unlike other exotic nanomaterials, he continues, the process of making these 2D TMCC nanomaterials is simple and scalable. tulane.edu. BREAKING DOWN PLASTIC In a world’s first, a team of researchers from Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill., successfully used metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) to break down polyester-based plastic into its component parts. In addition to demonstrating that MOFs are a stable and selective catalyst, an important bonus of the new process is that one of the resulting component parts, terephthalic acid, is a chemical used to produce plastic. In this way, the method eliminates the need to utilize expensive, energy-intensive production to separate xylenes. “We can do a lot better than starting from scratch when making plastic bottles,” says scientist Omar Farha. “Our process is much cleaner.” For the experimental catalyst, the researchers chose a zirconium-based MOF called UiO-66 because it is easy to make, scalable, and inexpensive. The team used what plastic they had on hand—water bottles that colleagues in the lab had discarded. They chopped them up, heated the plastic, and then applied the catalyst. “The MOF performed even better than we anticipated,” according to Farha. “We found the catalyst to be very selective and robust. Neither the color of the plastic bottle or the different plastic the bottle caps were made from affected the efficiency of the catalyst. And the method doesn’t require organic solvents, which is a plus.” According to the researchers, the work helps address long-standing challenges With Northwestern’s unique degradation process using MOFs, more plastic bottles can be made into new ones instead of ending up in a landfill. associatedwith plastic waste and opens up newareas and applications for MOFs. northwestern.edu.

RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTYyMzk3NQ==