Our scientists use carbon dioxide to synthesize new biodegradable plastics and realize mass production---characteristics of acrylic lenses
According to the Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the researcher Wang Xianhong’s team turned carbon dioxide into “waste” and realized the industrial production of carbon dioxide-based biodegradable plastics with an annual output of 50,000 tons. Carbon dioxide is the main 'culprit' of the greenhouse effect, but it is also a low-cost carbon resource. Carbon dioxide-based biodegradable plastics can be synthesized with it as a raw material. The degradation products have no pollution to the environment, and the production cost is low. Since 1997, the Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has begun to deploy basic research on the application of carbon dioxide-based biodegradable materials. “The principle of synthesizing carbon dioxide-based biodegradable materials is not difficult. The difficulty lies in how to develop high-activity catalysts to synthesize high-molecular-weight carbon dioxide-based plastics, and modify them to achieve optimal properties through low-cost modification.” Wang Xianhong said. Through technical cooperation with multiple companies and after repeated trials, the team completed the industrialized process design of high-molecular-weight carbon dioxide-based biodegradable plastics with excellent performance in 2014. This achievement was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China's Outstanding Youth Science Fund, and obtained 2 US patents, 1 Japanese patent, and 27 Chinese invention patents, forming a complete independent intellectual property right. At present, the carbon dioxide-based biodegradable plastic has been mass-produced, with an industrial production capacity of 50,000 tons per year, which can be used to prepare plastic bags, express packaging, etc. At the same time, the mulch made of this material has been tested for 4 consecutive years by scientific research institutions such as the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, which is expected to provide a new breakthrough for solving the residual pollution of the mulch on the farmland. Acrylic lens features