{"id":110186,"date":"2022-06-03T07:35:00","date_gmt":"2022-06-03T05:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=110186"},"modified":"2022-05-27T15:32:20","modified_gmt":"2022-05-27T13:32:20","slug":"toward-new-degradable-polymers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/toward-new-degradable-polymers\/","title":{"rendered":"Toward new degradable polymers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"290\" height=\"290\" src=\"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2022\/05\/plastiques-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-110208\" srcset=\"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2022\/05\/plastiques-2.jpg 290w, https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2022\/05\/plastiques-2-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2022\/05\/plastiques-2-270x270.jpg 270w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 290px) 100vw, 290px\" \/><figcaption>\u00a9 Julien Nicolas<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>A research team has synthesized new degradable polymers by integrating fragile linkages in their structure.<\/strong><\/li><li><strong>They degrade in water much faster than the polymers currently considered the gold standard.<\/strong><\/li><li><strong>A number of potential applications are on the horizon, ranging from the biomedical sector to water treatment.<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Plastics are highly flexible and possess multiple uses, but also have a major problem, their degradation. Most take a considerable amount of time to decompose in nature. In a<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-022-30220-y\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"> new study published in <em>Nature Communications<\/em><\/a> on 24 May 2022, a team of researchers from the CNRS and l\u2019Universit\u00e9 Paris-Saclay has developed new polymers that degrade in water in the record time of one week.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Vinyl polymers, commonly referred to as \u201cplastics,\u201d are ubiquitous materials. They are extremely interesting for their ease of synthesis and their great diversity in terms of architecture and functionality. However, their non-degradability raises major environmental problems<sup>1<\/sup> , highly limiting their use in biomedical applications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thanks to a new polymerization technique<sup>2<\/sup> that can create macromolecules with a controlled and homogenous architecture, the team of Julien Nicolas<sup>3<\/sup> , a CNRS researcher at l\u2019Institut Galien Paris-Saclay (CNRS\/Universit\u00e9 Paris-Saclay), has synthetized a very easily degradable polymer material. By inserting a fragile monomer<sup>4<\/sup> in polyacrylamide \u2014 a polymer widely used in many industrial sectors \u2014 the latter can, depending on the nature of the monomer added, either become water-soluble, or feature solubility that adjusts depending on the temperature, especially near that of the human body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>How degradable are they? In water they can degrade by over 70% in a week, as opposed to months and even years for today\u2019s leading biodegradable polymers, such as PLA or PCL<sup>5<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thanks to the characteristics of these new polymers and their ease of synthesis, the research team believes they can be used to administer medicine, namely by formulating these polymers as thermosensitive nanoparticles that can solubilize at the temperature of a human body. Such chemistry should also pave the way for degradable surfactants for water treatment via flocculation<sup>6<\/sup> , a process commonly used in potable water treatment plants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2022\/05\/TOC_EN1-1.jpg\" alt=\"These new polymers, which can be thermosensitive, rapidly degrade under the effect of water. \" class=\"wp-image-110207\" width=\"600\" height=\"486\" srcset=\"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2022\/05\/TOC_EN1-1.jpg 800w, https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2022\/05\/TOC_EN1-1-300x243.jpg 300w, https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2022\/05\/TOC_EN1-1-150x122.jpg 150w, https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2022\/05\/TOC_EN1-1-768x622.jpg 768w, https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2022\/05\/TOC_EN1-1-333x270.jpg 333w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption>These new polymers, which can be thermosensitive, rapidly degrade under the effect of water. \u00a9 Julien Nicolas<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Bibliography<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-022-30220-y\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Vinyl Copolymers with Faster Hydrolytic Degradation than Aliphatic Polyesters and Tunable Upper Critical Solution Temperatures<\/a>. Amaury Bossion, Chen Zhu, L\u00e9a Guerassimoff, Julie Mougin and Julien Nicolas. <em>Nature Communications<\/em>, 24 may 2022. DOI: 10.1038\/s41467-022-30220-y<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><br>Contact<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Julien Nicolas<br>CNRS researcher<br>Phone: +33 1 46 83 58 53<br>E-Mail: <a href=\"mailto:julien.nicolas@u-psud.fr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">julien.nicolas@u-psud.fr<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Notes<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><sup>1.<\/sup> See the conference: Plastic Pollution: From Assessment to Solutions, Research Mobilized (in French)<br><sup>2.<\/sup> Controlled radical polymerization.<br><sup>3.<\/sup> These results were obtained as part of the THERMONANO project led by Julien Nicolas, and financed by the European Research Council (ERC).<br><sup>4.<\/sup> Molecules, most often organic, that react with one another to form long polymer chains.<br><sup>5.<\/sup> PLA=polylactic acid, a biodegradable polymer generally made from corn starch. PCL=polycaprolactone, a biodegradable polymer.<br><sup>6.<\/sup> Flocculation is a process used in water treatment consisting of an agglomeration phase (possible thanks to the addition of a flocculant) and a decantation phase for the aggregates obtained.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A research team has synthesized new degradable polymers by integrating fragile linkages in their structure. They degrade in water much faster than the polymers currently considered the gold standard. A number of potential applications are on the horizon, ranging from the biomedical sector to water treatment. Plastics are highly flexible and possess multiple uses, but [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","nova_meta_subtitle":"Researchers from CNRS and the Universit\u00e9 Paris-Saclay developed new polymers that degrade in water in the record time of one week","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[11270,10416,11966],"supplier":[5072,20426],"class_list":["post-110186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-biodegradability","tag-circulareconomy","tag-plastics","supplier-centre-national-de-la-recherche-scientifique-cnrs","supplier-universite-paris-saclay"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110186\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110186"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=110186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}