IIT Madras Finds An Eco-friendly Way To Degrade Plastics

The strategy can degrade several varieties of plastic - Teflon, polyethylene, polypropylene

- R. Prasad

Three years ago researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras observed silver slowly dissolving in a glucose solution when heated to 70 degree C. Now, the team has demonstrated an environment-friendly strategy to degrade the chemically inert and physically stable plastic fluoropolymer — polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) of which Teflon is made. All that is required to degrade the fluoropolymer into molecules is continuous stirring of it in water containing 1,000 ppm glucose and metal ions for about 15 days at 70 degree C.

Using the same strategy, the team led by T. Pradeep from the Department of Chemistry at IIT Madras was able to degrade polypropylene too. The results were published in the journal ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering.

The researchers used a magnetic stirrer coated with Teflon to continuously stir for several days the water mixed with glucose in a glass beaker containing a gold foil. “After a few days we observed something unusual. We found tiny fragments with bright red luminescence floating on the surface,” Prof. Pradeep recalls. In earlier studies, they found that gold, too, corrodes slowly due to glucose. This phenomenon was observed when other sugars were tested.

Hunch that worked