Green alternative to PET could be even greener
Thursday, January 31, 2019 - 08:00
in Physics & Chemistry
One of the most successful plastics is polyethylene terephthalate (PET), the material we use to make bottles and fibers for clothing. However, PET is made from petroleum-based building blocks. An alternative to PET can be made from bio-based furan molecules, but to polymerize these furans you need toxic catalysts and high temperatures. Now, polymer chemists from the University of Groningen, led by Prof. Katja Loos, have described an enzyme-based polymerization method. Their results were published in the journal ChemSusChem on 29 January.