Sometimes, it takes time and patience to develop solutions to hard problems. But thankfully, dedicated scientists and researchers are never deterred when facing challenges. Instead, challenges energize them, frequently producing some amazing outcomes.
The latest example of this comes courtesy of a group of researchers at the University of Delaware and the Argonne National Laboratory, who have discovered a chemical process that can convert Styrofoam and other types of plastic waste into a valuable conducting polymer material that can then be used in electronic devices.
According to a paper published in July in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the joint research team started with evaluating whether PEDOT:PSS, a polymer that has electronic and ionic conductivity could be synthesized from plastic waste. Specifically, they explored the sulfonation of plastic waste made from polystyrene, which is used in many types of containers and packaging materials.
After extensive experimentation and testing over several months, the researchers ultimately determined the specific solvents, the molar ratios of sulfonating agents, and the temperatures needed to achieve the highest possible polymer sulfonation of polystyrene samples. They then compared the resulting waste-derived material compared with conventional PEDOT:PSS and found comparable performance.
In addition, the researchers also found that their process minimized the amount of waste generated during the conversion process, resulting in a win-win outcome!
