New Members in Plastic Family

Written by Xu Gaodong and translated by Xin Xue

　　Through the last article Making a Family Portrait for Plastics issued by China Titanium Net ( click http://www.tio2.net.cn/english/InfoShow.asp?Id=15901), we know that there are a variety of plastics and their classification is very complex. In this article, the author is going to introduce some special functional plastics in recent years. According to the fast development of plastic technology, the perfection of the function of materials market and the rising consumers＇ demand, the development of new plastic materials becomes hot and the research centers mushroomed in almost every country. They began a research and development competition aiming at the application performance for special industries and created many practical results for the development,application and innovation of new plastic materials. For the present, new members has entered the plastic family, namely the following five "strangers" which is favored by people in the industry.

　　The first stranger: The new bio-plastics with high thermal conductivity which is able to contend with stainless steel

　　Nippon Electric Company (NEC) newly developed a biological plastic whose raw material is plant. Its thermal conductivity is comparable to stainless steel. NEC made the new bio-plastics by mixing corn-based polylactic acid resin with special adhesion and a few millimeters long carbon fiber with a diameter of 0.01mm. If 10% carbon fiber is used, the thermal conductivity of bio-plastics will equal to stainless steel; If the percentage of carbon fiber achieves 30%, its thermal conductivity will be two times as much as stainless steel and its density will be only 1/5 of stainless steel.

　　Besides, this kind of bio-plastics is light-weighted, easy-molding and has little pollution to the environment, so it can be used to produce the frame of electronic products like thin computers and mobile phones.

　　The second stranger: Variable colour plastic film with optical effects

　　University Of Southampton and Germany Darmstadt Plastics Research Institute co-developed a variable color plastic film. This kind of film combines natural optical effects and man-made optical effects, which is actually a new way to change the color of an object accurately. It is a kind of plastic opal films. And it is composed of small plastic balls stacked up in three-dimensional space. There are also small carbon nano-particles among the plastic balls so that light not only reflects in the marginal zone between plastic balls and the surrounding materials, but also reflects at the surface of carbon nano-particles. In this way, the color of the film is greatly deepened. As long as the volume of the small plastic balls is controlled, optical materials only scattering certain spectral frequencies will be produced.

　　The third stranger: Plastic blood which has made outstanding contributions in the medical circle

　　The research personnel of University of Sheffield developed a kind of artificial "plastic blood", which looks like a thick paste. As long as it is dissolved in the water, the doctor can use it to give the patient a transfusion, hence it can be taken as the substitute of blood in emergency. This kind of new artificial blood is composed of plastic molecules. And a piece of artificial blood contains millions of plastic molecules, whose size and shape is similar to hemoglobin. Besides, it can carry iron atom and transport oxygen to the whole body, which is also similar to the function of hemoglobin. It is convenient to take along and can be used for a long period. And it doesn＇t require cold storage. Compared with the real artificial blood, it has a higher efficiency and a lower cost.

　　The fourth stranger: A new bullet-proof plastic which is like a diamond armor

　　A research group in Mexico has developed a new bullet-proof plastic, which can be used to make bullet-proof glass and clothes. It is a specially processed plastic material with super-strong anti-elastic and its quality is only 1 / 5 to 1 / 7 of the traditional materials. Tests showed that this kind of new plastics can resist bullets with a diameter of 22mm. Generally, the common bulletproof material will beome diformed after being hit by bullets and can not be used again. However, this new material will restore soon after a temporary distortion and can be used again. Besides, it can evenly distribute the bullet impact to reduce the harm to human body.

　　The fifth stranger: Plastics which can reduce vehicle noise pollution

　　Presently, American Polymer Group (PGI) manufactured a new basic material by using renewable polypropylene and polyethylene terephthalate. Using them to produce molded automobile parts can reduce noise pollution. The kinds of materials are mainly used in car body and wheel well liners. The barrier layer they produced will absorb the sound within the vehicle compartment and reduce noise. The reducing range is from 25% to 30%. PGI has developed a special one-step production process, that is, combine recycled materials with unprocessed materials and make them as a whole through layering method and acupuncture.

Our statement about the copyright and responsibility:
I. Please add the source of "China Titanium Dioxide Website" if you reproduce the original article from our website. And in order to respect the hard work of the author, please add the author's name if it appears in the article. We will investigate the legal liability of those who violate the above statement.
II. We are not responsible for the views and authenticity of the articles which we reproduced from other media because our aim of reproduction is to deliver more information to the readers.
III. If you have problems about the articles' content, copyright or others, please send email to network@tio2.net.cn or call us at 0086-10-89254511 ext 8019.

【Comment】 【Print】 【BBS】 【Close】