摘要
Scientists from the Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences(CAS)have developed a new way to make plastics to make it possible to be degradable in ambient environment with proper lighting.This move could help reduce plastic pollution.The new approach produces plastics from ethylene gas and carbon monoxide using specialized catalysts.This innovation incorporates two features to make the new-type plastics superior:the ability to degrade under ultraviolet light,and the new hydrophilic surface induced by introduction of new functional groups.The study was published in National Science Review(doi:10.1093/nsr/nwad039).