{"id":211514,"date":"2010-01-21T19:40:00","date_gmt":"2010-01-22T00:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"Gizmodo-5454119"},"modified":"2010-01-21T19:40:00","modified_gmt":"2010-01-22T00:40:00","slug":"clay-and-water-based-hydrogels-possible-alternative-to-plastic-guts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/211514","title":{"rendered":"Clay- and Water-Based Hydrogels: Possible Alternative to Plastic [Guts]"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>Plastic polymers are efficient, cheap and easy to make—but not very environmentally friendly. Hydrogels had previously not been really considered a viable alternative, because they’re, well, gels. But by attaching them to clay, that’s all changed.<\/p>\n

Turns out the water-based (duh) hydrogels had a great affinity for attaching to glass, so researchers tested out its relationship with something fairly similar: Clay. And lo and behold, it sticks! That gives it a bunch of properties that make it a possible alternative to plastics:<\/p>\n

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This notably improved mechanical properties over other hydrogels, as it could be molded into shapes that are free-standing and relatively robust and would undergo self-healing when cut. Less than 0.4 percent of it is petroleum-derived, so improved versions may provide an appealing green alternative to polymers. The best aspect, however, may be its simplicity: all you need are three ingredients, a beaker of water, and something to stir with.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Of course, it remains to be seen whether these new hydrogels actually take off as a plastic replacement, but it looks like now they might have a fighting chance. [Ars Technica<\/a>]<\/p>\n



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Plastic polymers are efficient, cheap and easy to make—but not very environmentally friendly. Hydrogels had previously not been really considered a viable alternative, because they’re, well, gels. But by attaching them to clay, that’s all changed. Turns out the water-based (duh) hydrogels had a great affinity for attaching to glass, so researchers tested out its […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1551,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-211514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1551"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211514\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}