New Self-heal Technology Used In Recycled Plastics

New“self-Heal” Technology Used In Recycled Plastics

When plastic materials are processed or recycled, their fundamental properties can degrade due to damage caused by deformation. Due to the different products and their properties, the recycling process can be very hard. However, the PP & PE honeycomb core industry has high wastage rate which makes the recycling-efficient procedure more urgent. Recycling processes tend to break molecular bonds inside the materials, making them weaker and less durable. So how to make them stronger again is a tricky question for years, until the self-heal technology appears.

Self-assembled materials spontaneously organize and can reform molecular connections after being damaged, allowing the materials to recover their strength over time. Many researchers are exploring applications of self-healing materials where plastic components are difficult to replace or repair, like nanotechnology inside computers or biomedical materials inside human bodies.

Thomas O'Connor, an assistant professor of materials science and engineering, is working to change that. He and his team of collaborators are using molecular simulations to study a type of self-assembling materials called associating polymers. These polymers are made of long molecular chains that contain sticky groups along their length.