Can carbon dioxide become a raw material for producing plastic? Researcher Jiayin Yuan hopes so, as he develops a method to replace current oil-based raw materials with carbon dioxide to achieve significant climate benefits.
Jiayin Yuan, Professor of Materials Chemistry. Photo: Magnus Bergström/KAW
Carbon dioxide is a colorless gas that plays a vital role in photosynthesis, forming the basis of biological life on Earth as we know it. Carbon dioxide is also a greenhouse gas, however. Rising levels of this gas in the atmosphere contribute to global warming and climate change.
To reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, various countries plan to capture and store it. But the ideal solution is not to only store collected carbon dioxide, says Yuan, professor of materials chemistry at Stockholm University:
“It’s better to find good ways to use and consume it immediately, like trees in a forest do as they grow.”
Having explored the possibility of using carbon dioxide as a raw material for eco-friendly fuels, he and his research team are now studying whether it is possible to convert carbon dioxide into a monomer precursor for plastic.
More than 380 million metric tons of plastic made from fossil oil are produced globally each year, and the processing of oil products used in plastics – not least the burning of plastic waste – contributes to negative climate impacts such as drought, extreme weather, and heat waves due to carbon dioxide emissions.
Our mission is to design, create and investigate broadly defined functional polymers and carbons, particularly in a well-structured (e.g., colloidal or porous) form, via simple chemistry and processing.
