Developing Scenarios for Product Longevity and Sufficiency

This paper explores the narrative of peoples’ relationships with products as a window on understanding the types of innovation that may inform a culture of sufficiency. The work forms part of the 'Business as Unusual: Designing Products with Consumers in the Loop' [BaU] project, funded as part of the UK EPSRC-ESRC RECODE network (RECODE, 2016) that aims to explore the potential of re-distributed manufacturing (RdM) in a context of sustainability. This element of the project employed interviews, mapping and workshops as methods to investigate the relationship between people and products across the product lifecycle. A focus on product longevity and specifically the people-product interactions is captured in conversations around product maintenance and repair. In exploring ideas of ‘broken’ we found different characteristics of, and motivations for, repair. Mapping these and other product-people interactions across the product lifecycle indicated where current activity is, who owns such activity (i.e. organisation or individual) and where gaps in interactions occur. These issues were explored further in a workshop which grouped participants to look at products from the perspective of one of four scenarios; each scenario represented either short or long product lifespans and different types of people engagement in the design process. The findings help give shape to new scenarios for designing sufficiency-based social models of material flows

A landscape of repair

This paper reports on EPSRC-funded research that explores the role of repair in creating new models of sustainable business. In the lifecycle stage of repair we explore what 'broken' means and uncover the nature of local and dispersed repair activities. This in turn allows us to better understand how the relationship between products and people can help shape new modes of consumption. Therefore, narratives of repair are collected to identify diverse people-product interactions and illustrate the different characteristics of, and motivations for, repair. The paper proposes that mapping the different product-people interactions across the product lifecycle, particularly at the stage of fragile-functionality (performance or function failure, emotional disengagement, superseded technology) is important in understanding the potential for enduring products and their repair. Building a landscape of repair creates new opportunities for manufacture and for slowing resource loops across product lifetimes, which together provide a framework for a sufficiency-based model of production and consumption

Poly[di-μ3-chlorido-[μ2-(3-pyrid­yl)(4-pyrid­yl)methanone-κ2 N:N′]dicopper(I)]

In the title compound, [Cu2Cl2(C11H8N2O)]n, stair-like ribbons of formula [Cu2Cl2]n are linked into coordination polymer layers by tethering (3-pyrid­yl)(4-pyrid­yl)methanone (3,4′-dpk) ligands. The two distinct CuI centres both adopt distorted CuNCl3 tetra­hedral coordinations. Individual [Cu2Cl2(3,4′-dpk)]n layers stack in an AB pattern along the c direction by way of weak C—H⋯O inter­actions between the pyridyl rings and ketone O atoms

1-[2-(Carboxymethoxy)phenyl]-N-(4-chlorophenyl)methanimine oxide

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Poly[[bis­[μ-1,4-bis­(3-pyridylmeth­yl)piperazine-κ2 N:N′]dichlorido­cadmium(II)] tetra­hydrate]

In the title compound, {[CdCl2(C16H20N4)2]·4H2O}n, octa­hedrally coordinated CdII ions, situated on crystallographic inversion centres, bearing trans-disposed chloride ligands, are linked into (4,4)-grid coordination polymer layers by tethering 1,4-bis­(3-pyridylmeth­yl)piperazine ligands. The layers are aligned parallel to the (01) crystal planes and aggregate by means of O—H⋯N, O—H⋯O and O—H⋯Cl hydrogen-bonding mechanisms imparted by cyclic water mol­ecule tetra­mers

catena-Poly[[[tetra­aqua­cobalt(II)]-μ-4,4′-bipyridine-κ2 N:N′] bis­(perchlorate) 4,4′-bipyridine disolvate dihydrate]

In the title compound, {[Co(C10H8N2)(H2O)4](ClO4)2·2C10H8N2·2H2O}n, slightly distorted octa­hedrally coordinated CoII ions situated on inversion centers are linked into polycationic chains through 4,4′-bipyridine tethering ligands. These are connected into supra­molecular layers by hydrogen bonding involving aqua ligands, perchlorate anions and uncoordinated water mol­ecules. A twofold inter­penetrated primitive cubic supra­molecular network is formed by the inter­action of pseudo-layers by hydrogen bonding between aqua ligands and unligated 4,4′-bipyridine mol­ecules

Novel sound absorption materials produced from air laid non-woven feather fibres

This research has investigated the use of feather fibres to produce sound absorption materials as an alternative to the oil derived synthetic plastics that currently dominate the sound absorption materials market. In this paper we show that clean and disinfected waste feathers from the poultry industry can be processed into fibres and air laid using commercial pilot plant facilities to form non-woven feather fibre composite mats. By varying the composition and processing conditions, materials with a range of different properties such as thickness and density were produced. The sound absorption coefficients of samples was determined using the impedance tube method (BS EN ISO 10534-2: 1998), using normal incidence sound between 80 and 1,600 Hz. The data reported shows that air laid non-woven feather fibre mats have improved sound absorption coefficients compared to other natural materials used for sound absorption for a given thickness, particularly in the problematic low frequency range between 250 to 800 Hz. We conclude that air laid non-woven feather fibres have high potential to be used as effective and sustainable sound absorption materials in aerospace, automotive, buildings, infrastructure and other applications where sound absorption is required

Poly[4,4′-imino­dipyridinium [tetra-μ3-oxido-tetra­oxido-di-μ4-phosphato-κ4 O:O′:O′′:O′′′-tetra­vanadium(V)]]

In the title salt, {(C10H11N3)[V4O8(PO4)2]}n, cubane-like [V4O8]4+ clusters are connected by phosphate anions into anionic [V4P2O16]n 2n− layers. These aggregate into the three-dimensional structure via N—H⋯O hydrogen-bonding mechanisms imparted by 4,4′-imino­dipyridinium dications situated between the layers

Zr3NiSb7: a new anti­mony-enriched ZrSb2 derivative

Single crystals of trizirconium nickel hepta­anti­monide were synthesized from the constituent elements by arc-melting. The compound crystallizes in a unique structure type and belongs to the family of two-layer structures. All crystallographically unique atoms (3 × Zr, 1 × Ni and 7 × Sb) are located at sites with m symmetry. The structure contains ‘Zr2Ni2Sb5’ and ‘Zr4Sb9’ fragments and might be described as a new ZrSb2 derivative with a high Sb content