A bucket of liquid plastic that never hardens sounds like a fantasy in a factory. It is also the kind of problem that drives ...

Imagine a microscopic locomotive moving back and forth along a track, propelling itself without any external force. At the molecular level, this concept forms the foundation of molecular motors -- ...

A postfunctionalization strategy using blue LED light and an organophotoredox catalyst generates carbocation intermediates on polymer chains, enabling the incorporation of phosphonate esters. This ...

Designing plastics that can be broken down easily after their use phase have often required a trade-off between stability and ...

Biological drugs such as gene therapies and messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines frequently rely on lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) coated in a layer of polyethylene glycol (PEG) to deliver medications to the ...

Polyolefins are thermoplastics synthesized from ethylene and propylene, primarily sourced from oil, natural gas, and sugar cane. They constitute about 50 % of plastic consumption in Europe and ...

Chemists have developed a catalytic process that turns the largest component of today's plastic waste stream, polyolefin plastic bags and bottles, into gases -- propylene and isobutylene -- that are ...

Chemists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed a method for producing new macromolecules with improved properties by modifying the polymers in discarded plastics.

Chemists at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev have developed a "smart" polymer that could make industrial curing, 3D ...

Fast-scanning atomic force microscopy imaging of the molecule at two different time points shows positional shifts along the polymer chain on the left. On the right, the molecular structure of PEG ...