Recent advances in bio-based polymers and composites: Preface to the BiPoCo 2012 Special Section

The increasing environmental awareness of the society has become an important factor in recent decades affecting legislation, commerce and industry as well as research and development to a great extent [1-7]. This tendency has also been recognized by the European Community, which supports numerous projects in order to promote innovative solutions leading to a sustainable economy. Three such projects of the Seventh Framework Programme with overlapping scopes, Biostruct [8], Forbioplast [9] and Woody [10], focused on the valorization of forest-derived resources for the production of various bio-based products, including polymers, additives, and composites with natural reinforcements. The leaders of these projects decided to join forces to organize a conference in order to create a possibility to disseminate their results as well as to increase the efficiency of their research and development by exchanging ideas with leading experts in the field. The International Conference on Bio-based Polymers and Composites (BiPoCo 2012) was organized for the first time in Siófok, Hungary, between May 27th and 31th, 2012, with 234 registered participants delivering more than 90 oral and 110 poster presentations. Scientific and technological lectures focused on the theory and practice of biopolymers, renewable-based monomers, fillers and additives as well as sustainable polymer blends and composites with possible application in packaging, agriculture, automotive or biomedicine. In the following sections we provide a short overview of the main research areas and presentations related to the event, and by doing so, continue the line set by Filip Du Prez, Jean-Marie Raquez and Philippe Dubois as Editors of the recent Biobased Polymers and Related Materials special issue of the European Polymer Journal [11]. Below we introduce to the reader the BiPoCo 2012 Special Section containing four feature articles and several research papers

White paper on the future of plasma science and technology in plastics and textiles

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: “Uros, C., Walsh, J., Cernák, M., Labay, C., Canal, J.M., Canal, C. (2019) White paper on the future of plasma science and technology in plastics and textiles. Plasma processes and polymers, 16 1 which has been published in final form at [doi: 10.1002/ppap.201700228]. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving."This white paper considers the future of plasma science and technology related to the manufacturing and modifications of plastics and textiles, summarizing existing efforts and the current state‐of‐art for major topics related to plasma processing techniques. It draws on the frontier of plasma technologies in order to see beyond and identify the grand challenges which we face in the following 5–10 years. To progress and move the frontier forward, the paper highlights the major enabling technologies and topics related to the design of surfaces, coatings and materials with non‐equilibrium plasmas. The aim is to progress the field of plastics and textile production using advanced plasma processing as the key enabling technology which is environmentally friendly, cost efficient, and offers high‐speed processingPeer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Editorial: biodegradable materials

This Special Issue “Biodegradable Materials” features research and review papers concerning recent advances on the development, synthesis, testing and characterisation of biomaterials. These biomaterials, derived from natural and renewable sources, offer a potential alternative to existing non-biodegradable materials with application to the food and biomedical industries amongst many others. In this Special Issue, the work is expanded to include the combined use of fillers that can enhance the properties of biomaterials prepared as films. The future application of these biomaterials could have an impact not only at the economic level, but also for the improvement of the environment

Recycling and the Environment: a Comparative Review Between Mineral-based Plastics and Bioplastics

Since their conception in the 1950s, mineral-based plastics have completely revolutionised our society with production reaching record highs year upon year. This cheap, and durable material has seen usage across a plethora of diverse industries and products, replacing traditional materials such as metals and wood. However, our reliance on mineral-based plastics has led to their improper disposal across the global, affecting our environments and ecosystems. As a response, different methods have been developed to help dispose of the large amounts of plastic waste produced, such as incineration or dumping in landfill sites, but these methods are not without their drawbacks including release of toxic substances into the air and leachate into the soil and waters respectively. Consequently, much interest is generated and channelled in recent years to the introduction of several types of biopolymers. These include plastics based on cellulosic esters, starch derivatives, polyhydroxybutyrate and polylactic acid. These biopolymers have been viewed as a suitable replacement for mineral-based plastics, and their production a good strategy towards sustainable development as they are mainly composed of biocompounds such as starch, cellulose and sugars. This short review article provides an overview as to whether biopolymers can rival mineral-based plastics considering properties such as mechanical strength, Young’s modulus and crystallinity and could they be regarded as a suitable material to reduce our reliance on mineral-based plastics, whilst simultaneously reducing non-renewable energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions

On the use of CO2 laser induced surface patterns to modify the wettability of Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA)

CO2 lasers can be seen to lend themselves to materials processing applications and have been used extensively in both research and industry. This work investigated the surface modification of PMMA with a CO2 laser in order to vary the wettability characteristics. The wettability characteristics of the PMMA were modified by generating a number of patterns of various topography on the surface using the CO2 laser. These induced patterns were trench and hatch with scan dimensions of 50 and 100 μm. Through white light interferometry it was found that for all laser patterned samples the surface roughness had significantly increased by up to 3.1 μm. The chemical composition of selected samples were explored using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and found that the surface oxygen content had risen by approximately 4% At. By using a sessile drop device it was found that, in comparison to the as-received sample, 50 μm dimensions gave rise to a more hydrophilic surface; whereas 100 μm dimensions gave rise to either no change in contact angle or an increase making the PMMA hydrophobic. This can be explained by combinations of surface roughness and γp contributing to the observed contact angle, in addition to the possibility of different wetting regimes taking place owed to the variation of topographies over the as-received and laser patterned samples

Von der Alchimie zu modernen Werk- und Effektstoffen

Chemistry has emerged from the dark ages of alchemistry as modern science which is claiming a major part in securing our high quality of life and promoting development of future technologies, ranging from aerospace and automotive industries to microelectronics and biomedical applications. This remarkable progress is highlighted by selected advances, e.g., Berthold Schwarz and his black powder development, Justus Liebig's fertilizers, and finally Hermann Staudinger's concept of modern macromolecular chemistry with far-reaching consequences for the development of man-made fibers, rubbers, and plastics. Today research is aimed at the development of 'smart materials' which are capable of changing properties, e.g., viscosity of dispersions, as a function of sensor signal intensity

High-Temperature Resistant Water-Soluble Polymers Derived From Exotic Amino Acids

© The Royal Society of Chemistry. High-performance water-soluble polymers have a wide range of applications from engineering materials to biomedical plastics. However, existing materials are either natural polymers that lack high thermostability or rigid synthetic polymers. Therefore, we design an amino acid-derived building block, 4,4′-diamino-α-truxillate dianion (4ATA2−), that induces water solubility in high-performance polymers. Polyimides containing 4ATA2− units are intrinsically water-soluble and are processed into films cast from an aqueous solution. The resulting polyimide films exhibit exceptional transparency and extremely high thermal stability. In addition, the films can be made insoluble in water by simple post-treatment using weak acid or multivalent metal ions such as calcium. The synthesized polyimide\u27s derived from bio-based resources are useful for yielding waterborne polymeric high-performance applications

Defining and Measuring High Technology in Georgia

This report defines and measures the high technology sector in Georgia

Bacillus subtilis as potential producer for polyhydroxyalkanoates

Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are biodegradable polymers produced by microbes to overcome environmental stress. Commercial production of PHAs is limited by the high cost of production compared to conventional plastics. Another hindrance is the brittle nature and low strength of polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB), the most widely studied PHA. The needs are to produce PHAs, which have better elastomeric properties suitable for biomedical applications, preferably from inexpensive renewable sources to reduce cost. Certain unique properties of Bacillus subtilis such as lack of the toxic lipo-polysaccharides, expression of self-lysing genes on completion of PHA biosynthetic process – for easy and timely recovery, usage of biowastes as feed enable it to compete as potential candidate for commercial production of PHA