It may not be alchemy — turning lead into gold — but it could turn every day things into something more valuable. In metathesis, chemical bonds are broken and new ones are formed. In olefin metathesis, a catalyst will enable a double-bonded atomic group to change places with another. It has long been possible to [...]
New Method in Polymer Chromatography
April 25, 2013 By Leave a Comment
As polymers become more complex, traditional separation techniques used to analyze the material’s composition are no longer adequate for today’s research and development demands. But a Massachusetts lab instrument business owner, who helped build a refractometer 50 years ago, and Dow Chemical Company have teamed up to develop a system that they say can provide [...]
Synthetic Polymer Relieves Knee Pain
April 23, 2013 By Leave a Comment
As anyone with chronic knee pain will attest, being mobile in order to perform even the simplest tasks can be excruciating and frustrating. But thanks to research conducted by scientists at Boston University, people with knee pain and arthritis may soon get pain relief. Or even stave off total knee replacement surgery. The researchers developed a [...]
3-D Polymer Printing Will Keep Lawyers Busy
April 17, 2013 By Leave a Comment
This is a guest post by Steve Erickson. How would you like to be able to conjure up a new pair of glasses if you lose your old ones? A new part for your broken watch? How about a dinner? 3-D printers are making all of this possible. They use polymers to create solid, three-dimensional objects, [...]
Polymer-Blend Material Aims to Mend Broken Bones
April 11, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Bad bone breaks may no longer need a metal pin or plate to help them heal, if Spanish researchers’ medical idea comes to fruition. The materials engineers from the UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country are developing a biodegradable polymer, infused with bioglass, that could help bones heal without needing additional surgical procedures, reports CORDIS News. [...]
Polymer Scaffolds May Lead to More Effective Cancer Therapies
April 9, 2013 By Leave a Comment
A polymer structure, much like scaffolds used to support or repair buildings, could trigger more breakthroughs in cancer research. Medical researchers have developed three-dimensional scaffolds made from porous polymers to mimic the environment in which cancer tumors grow in a human body. Cancer cells can then be grown in that structure — outside the body [...]
Cellulose Enables Recyclable Solar Cells
April 2, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Just like you recycle plastic containers and glass, pretty soon you will be able to recycle solar cells. Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Purdue University are using natural substances from trees and plants as the basis for organic solar cells. Substrates made from cellulose — a natural polymer — hold the solar [...]
Polymer Alignment Speeds Conductivity
March 28, 2013 By Leave a Comment
In most universes and dimensions, the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. This statement is true in the electronic realm as well. Now, researchers at the University of Michigan have aligned molecules of semiconducting polymers so that electricity can flow more easily. The innovation could create a breakthrough for computer processors, LED [...]
Use of Dissolvable Arterial Stents Growing
March 25, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Dissolvable arterial stents laced with polymers to prevent blood clotting seem to be catching on throughout the world. Just not here. Yet. Global pharma company Abbott has released its “Bioresorbable Vascular Scaffold” in India and in Europe. Meanwhile, Japan’s Terumo Corporation is tauting its dissolving arterial stent as just as good as Abbott’s. However, the [...]
Polymer Coating Improves Cancer Drug Therapy
March 21, 2013 By Leave a Comment
A University of South Carolina scientist has developed a polymer coating that helps powerful cancer drugs target and kill tumors like a military smart bomb. The polymer coating developed by Peisheng Xu, a researcher in the South Carolina College of Pharmacy, provides two advantages. It encapsulates the drug, and it helps the drug locate the tumor, [...]
