Plastic from oranges
Canadian Plastics
Researchers at Cornell University have discovered how to make plastics from citrus fruits such as oranges. Limonene, a compound that makes up about 95% of the oil in orange peel, and carbon dioxide, a...
Researchers at Cornell University have discovered how to make plastics from citrus fruits such as oranges. Limonene, a compound that makes up about 95% of the oil in orange peel, and carbon dioxide, are combined with the help of a catalyst to produce a novel polymer, polylimonene carbonate, which researchers say has many of the properties of polystyrene.
“The polymer is a repeating unit, much like a strand of paper dolls,” said lead researcher professor Geoffrey Coates. “But instead of repeating dolls, the components alternate between limonene oxide and CO2 in the polymer.”