Polymers are lightweight, durable, and easily processed into fabricated parts, features that promoted polymers to become the most relevant class of engineering materials by volume. However, recycling ...

Polyethylene plastics — in particular, the ubiquitous plastic bag that blights the landscape — are notoriously hard to recycle. They’re sturdy and difficult to break down, and if they’re recycled at ...

Firing bricks and making mortar and cement is very costly, but organic chemists are working on more sustainable alternatives -- focusing on building materials made from waste products. In another move ...

Chemists discovered a new way to make polymers stronger: introduce a few weaker bonds into the material. Working with polyacrylate elastomers, they could increase the materials' resistance to tearing ...

Element-blocks, the minimum heteroatom-containing functional units, are versatile building blocks for constructing functional polymers. In this focus review, we explain the new concept of developing ...

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- A team of chemists from MIT and Duke University has discovered a counterintuitive way to make polymers stronger: introduce a few weaker bonds into the material. Working with a type of ...