Quantifying and tracking PBAT microplastic degradation in soil. A newly developed thermal-assisted alkali hydrolysis and LC–MS method enables accurate quantification of PBAT microplastics and their ...

Biodegradable plastics are usually sought after for their ability to break down quickly. However, this does not tell us how safely a product can be used before it degrades. A research team has ...

A partly decomposed shoe, covered in mussels, on a sunny pier. Algenesis submerged shoes made with its biodegradable polyurethane foam in the Pacific Ocean to demonstrate their decomposition. Credit: ...

Pollution affects human health and the environment in many ways. Air, water, and land pollution continue to damage ecosystems, with conventional materials—especially plastics—being a primary ...

Abby Rolston became aware of the amount of plastic waste that’s thrown away each day while working as a veterinary assistant. Today her research is focused on the degradation of blended polymers ...

Nylon-based products such as clothing and fishing nets are notoriously slow to degrade, especially in marine environments, contributing significantly to global ocean pollution. A Korean research team ...

Traditional polyesters are obtained via ring-opening polymerization (ROP), but significant research is currently directed at designing new biodegradable vinyl polymers with esters groups in the ...

Biodegradable polymers are a type of polymer that exists both naturally and can be synthesized in laboratories. This special class of polymer is broken down naturally by microbial processes to produce ...

Biodegradable electronics allow for medical devices -- such as drug delivery systems, pacemakers or neural implants -- to safely degrade into materials that are absorbed by the body after they are no ...