• Question: can you explain the process of turning CO2 into plastic?

    Asked by spivey to Alice JB, Andy, Barbara, James, Jo on 10 Jun 2011. This question was also asked by atkins.
    • Photo: James Jennings

      James Jennings answered on 10 Jun 2011:

      We don’t quite make plastic directly from CO2 (though it is possible!).

      I’ll explain myself better… The CO2 is simply the solvent for making the plastic. Plastics are made from long chain molecules called “polymers”. The CO2 is actually a non-solvent for my polymers themselves! We also use something to go between the CO2 and the polymer, to allow the reaction to take place- called a stabiliser. This causes the polymers to form small balls throughout the CO2. Then when we remove the CO2 at the end, we get our polymers out- in the form of a nice dry powder- not the form you would expect a plastic to be in!

      In order to turn these powders into the plastics you see around every day, extra steps are needed- such as heating and moulding. I am not directly involved in that research area, but feel free to ask me further questions!

    • Photo: Barbara Guinn

      Barbara Guinn answered on 10 Jun 2011:

      No idea and if James’s answer wasn’t above for me to read, I would search exactly that question on the internet to see if I could find out more. There are some great search engines and lots of information easily available on the web now, but just remember to look at more than 1 web site, especially if the answer doesn’t seem quite right.

    • Photo: Jo Hulsmans

      Jo Hulsmans answered on 10 Jun 2011:

      No I can’t, not exactly my expertise!

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