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Better understanding plastics underlying chemistry may revolutionize how we use these ubiquitous materials
DOE/US Department of Energy
Too much natural gas. A small adjustment to an experiment. These ingredients came together to produce one of the most influential materials ever invented.
Researchers at Berkeley Lab s Molecular Foundry user facility developed a polymer that they can break down and recreate. It could lead to cyclical plastics that can be recycled over and over again.
Image courtesy of Marilyn Chung/Berkeley Lab
In the wake of World War II, companies were left with excess fossil fuels with no war to consume them. Looking to turn extra natural gas into liquid fuel, the Philips Petroleum Company hired chemists J. Paul Hogan and Robert L. Banks. As they experimented with turning natural gas into gasoline, they tweaked their catalyst - a material used to speed up chemical reactions. They expected it would make a liquid. Instead, the process produ ....

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