PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Does that 'green' plasticizer make my PVC flexible enough for you?

A study of an eco-friendly solvent helping to make PVC plastic more flexible reveals the molecular-level interaction of hydrogen bonds between the 2 ingredients

2015-07-06
(Press-News.org) What gives plastic objects their flexibility and reduces their brittleness is the concentration of plasticiser. For example, a chemical solvent of the phthalate family called DOP is often used. The trouble is there are concerns that phthalates present health risks. So there is a demand for more alternatives. Now, scientists from China have examined the effect of using DEHHP, a new eco-friendly plasticiser, used in combination with PVC. For a plasticiser to work, there has to be adequate hydrogen bonding with the plastic. By combining experiments and simulations, the team revealed why the polymer-solvent hydrogen bonding interaction's strength decreases with dilution at a molecular level - which is a phenomenon also observed in the DOP-PVC combination. These findings have been published in EPJ Plus by Yang Liu from Nanjing University and colleagues.

The team studied the polymer-solvent interactions at various temperatures and concentrations. Specifically, they looked at the effects of DEHHP concentration in relation to hydrogen bonding interactions, as a means to evaluate its ability to make plastics flexible. This eco-friendly plasticiser is an ideal model because it has only one kind of hydrogen bonding interaction - between polymer and solvent - and is free of other potentially interfering hydrogen bonding interactions.

They found in stretching experiments that when the temperature increases or the PVC concentration decreases, the interactions between polymer and solvent were weaker in the PVC-DEHHP mix than in the PVC-DOP combination.

Then, they used what they refer to as low-field hydrogen Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR). This shows that the number of polymer-solvent complexes decreased as temperature increased. Furthermore, they looked into simulations of the molecular dynamics to study the role of polymer-solvent hydrogen bonding interactions. They demonstrated that when the temperature was high or the PVC concentration was low, faster molecular motions resulted. This also led to the disassociation of the hydrogen bonds in the hydrogen bonding system.

INFORMATION:

Reference: Yang Liu, Rongchun Zhang, Xiaoliang Wang, Pingchuan Sun, Wei Chen, Jianyi Shen and Gi Xue (2015), Hydrogenation induced deviation of temperature and concentration dependences of polymer-solvent interactions in poly(vinyl chloride) and a new eco-friendly plasticizer, European Physical Journal Plus 130: 116, DOI 1140/epjp/i2015-15116-3

For more information visit: http://www.epj.org

The full-text article is available to journalists on request.



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Tel Aviv/Tsinghua University project uses crowd computing to improve water filtration

2015-07-06
Nearly 800 million people worldwide don't have access to safe drinking water, and some 2.5 billion people live in precariously unsanitary conditions, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Together, unsafe drinking water and the inadequate supply of water for hygiene purposes contribute to almost 90% of all deaths from diarrheal diseases -- and effective water sanitation interventions are still challenging scientists and engineers. A new study published in Nature Nanotechnology proposes a novel nanotechnology-based strategy to improve water filtration. ...

Ion channel mechanics yield insights into optogenetics experiments

2015-07-06
Optogenetics techniques, which allow scientists to map and control nerve cells using light stimulation, are being used to study neural circuits in the brain with unprecedented precision. This revolutionary technology relies on light-sensitive proteins such as channelrhodopsins, and researchers at UC Santa Cruz have now determined the molecular mechanism involved in the light-induced activation of one of these proteins. The new findings, published July 3 in two papers in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, can help scientists create tailor-made proteins optimized for ...

How the mammoth got its wool: Genetic changes are identified

How the mammoth got its wool: Genetic changes are identified
2015-07-06
Evolutionary change in a gene resurrected in the lab from the extinct woolly mammoth altered the gene's temperature sensitivity and likely was part of a suite of adaptations that allowed the mammoth to survive in harsh arctic environments, according to new research. In a study published in Cell Reports on July 2, 2015, researchers determined the whole-genome sequence of two woolly mammoths and three modern Asian elephants, predicted the function of genetic changes found only in the mammoths, and then experimentally validated the function of a woolly mammoth gene reconstructed ...

Research breakthrough to treat girls-only epilepsy

2015-07-06
An international team, led by a University of Adelaide genetics expert, has made a breakthrough discovery which is expected to help thousands of young girls worldwide who are suffering from a rare yet debilitating form of epilepsy. Professor Jozef Gecz, from the University of Adelaide's Robinson Research Institute, was a key player in identifying the responsible gene and mutations in this female-only epileptic syndrome, in 2008. In breakthrough research published in Oxford Journals, Human Molecular Genetics, Professor Gecz has now found a treatment for this disorder. ...

tRNAs are segmented into fragments in a manner that depends on race, gender and population

2015-07-06
(PHILADELPHIA) -- Transfer RNAs (tRNAs) are ancient molecules and indispensable components of all living cells - they are found in all three kingdoms of life i.e., in archaea, bacteria and eukaryotes. In a cell, they are part of the machinery that translates messenger RNA (mRNA) sequences into amino acid sequences. In recent years advances in sequencing technology have enabled detailed investigations of the RNA molecules that are active in a cell. A study published July 6th in the journal Oncotarget reports on a newly discovered category of tRNA fragments as well as ...

Big city life: New leafhopper species found on a threatened grass in New Jersey

Big city life: New leafhopper species found on a threatened grass in New Jersey
2015-07-06
Andrew Hicks from the Museum of Natural History at the University of Colorado and his team discovered a previously unknown leafhopper species in the New Jersey Pine Barrens, located just east of the megalopolis that extends from New York City to Washington, DC. This was the first time an insect has been reported from the state-listed threatened pinebarren smokegrass, Muhlenbergia torreyana. The study can be found in the open-access journal ZooKeys. The discovery was made with the help of Dr. Gerry Moore of the Natural Resources Conservation Service in Greensboro, NC, ...

Emotion knowledge fosters attentiveness

2015-07-06
Young children, who possess a good understanding of their own emotions and of those of their fellow human beings early on, suffer fewer attention problems than their peers with a lower emotional understanding. Evidence of this phenomenon was found through a study of Leuphana University of Lueneburg and George Mason University, USA, under the auspices of Prof. Dr. Maria von Salisch, Professor of Developmental Psychology at Leuphana University of Lueneburg. The study was recently published in the journal Kindheit & Entwicklung (Childhood & Development). The findings stem ...

Pazopanib improves progression-free survival without impairing HRQOL

2015-07-06
Results of EORTC trial 62072 appearing in Cancer show that in patients with soft tissue sarcoma, whose disease had progressed during or after prior chemotherapy, pazopanib improved progression-free survival but did not change health-related quality of life. This observed improvement in progression-free survival without impairment of health-related quality of life was considered a meaningful result. There has not been a lot of research that has looked into the quality of life of patients with advanced soft tissue sarcoma. The results of this EORTC health related quality ...

New study again shows: More strokes with intracranial stents

2015-07-06
The risk of experiencing another stroke is higher if patients, after dilation of their blood vessels in the brain, receive not only clot-inhibiting drugs, but also have stents inserted. The recently published results of the VISSIT study confirm this conclusion of a rapid report by the German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) of October 2014. Thus, the available studies still provide no evidence of a benefit of treatment with intracranial stents (also called "percutaneous transluminal angioplasty and stenting", PTAS). This is the conclusion of a ...

Producing biodegradable plastic just got cheaper and greener

2015-07-06
Biodegradable drinking cups or vegetable wrapping foil: the bioplastic known as polylactic acid (PLA) is already a part of our everyday lives. And yet, PLA is not yet considered a full alternative to traditional petroleum-based plastics, as it is costly to produce. Researchers from the KU Leuven Centre for Surface Chemistry and Catalysis now present a way to make the PLA production process more simple and waste-free. Their findings were published in Science. The bioplastic PLA is derived from renewable resources, including the sugar in maize and sugarcane. Fermentation ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Pink skies

Monkeys are world’s best yodellers - new research

Key differences between visual- and memory-led Alzheimer’s discovered

% weight loss targets in obesity management – is this the wrong objective?

An app can change how you see yourself at work

NYC speed cameras take six months to change driver behavior, effects vary by neighborhood, new study reveals

New research shows that propaganda is on the rise in China

Even the richest Americans face shorter lifespans than their European counterparts, study finds

Novel genes linked to rare childhood diarrhea

New computer model reveals how Bronze Age Scandinavians could have crossed the sea

Novel point-of-care technology delivers accurate HIV results in minutes

Researchers reveal key brain differences to explain why Ritalin helps improve focus in some more than others

Study finds nearly five-fold increase in hospitalizations for common cause of stroke

Study reveals how alcohol abuse damages cognition

Medicinal cannabis is linked to long-term benefits in health-related quality of life

Microplastics detected in cat placentas and fetuses during early pregnancy

Ancient amphibians as big as alligators died in mass mortality event in Triassic Wyoming

Scientists uncover the first clear evidence of air sacs in the fossilized bones of alvarezsaurian dinosaurs: the "hollow bones" which help modern day birds to fly

Alcohol makes male flies sexy

TB patients globally often incur "catastrophic costs" of up to $11,329 USD, despite many countries offering free treatment, with predominant drivers of cost being hospitalization and loss of income

Study links teen girls’ screen time to sleep disruptions and depression

Scientists unveil starfish-inspired wearable tech for heart monitoring

Footprints reveal prehistoric Scottish lagoons were stomping grounds for giant Jurassic dinosaurs

AI effectively predicts dementia risk in American Indian/Alaska Native elders

First guideline on newborn screening for cystic fibrosis calls for changes in practice to improve outcomes

Existing international law can help secure peace and security in outer space, study shows

Pinning down the process of West Nile virus transmission

UTA-backed research tackles health challenges across ages

In pancreatic cancer, a race against time

Targeting FGFR2 may prevent or delay some KRAS-mutated pancreatic cancers

[Press-News.org] Does that 'green' plasticizer make my PVC flexible enough for you?
A study of an eco-friendly solvent helping to make PVC plastic more flexible reveals the molecular-level interaction of hydrogen bonds between the 2 ingredients