Studying Synthetic Polymers for Enhancing Recycling and Biodegradability of Plastics

DATE: February 2020
University of Akron | Polymer Science
James M. Eagan, Assistant Professor

Our lab studies new synthetic polymers for enhancing recycling and biodegradability of existing plastics. To achieve these goals, our lab performs living polymerizations, air-sensitive catalysis, and reaction sampling. Hamilton's products are uniquely effective at providing us with clean, moisture, and air-free surfaces for our syringes. Even nanomolar amounts of moisture or oxygen can destroy our experiments, so high-quality equipment is critical. Furthermore, the polymer products we synthesize must be sampled and due to the high-viscosity and precipitate, Hamilton's custom needles aid us in efficiently sampling our experiments.

Active graduate student projects in our lab include sustainable polyolefins synthesis, CO2 polymerization, and medical applications of polyolefins.

Our lab utilizes Hamilton equipment at many different length scales. We use micro moles and micro liters of a catalyst solution, in order to synthesize grams of a polymer that we sample, and ultimately blend these polymers with kilograms of commercial plastic to improve the properties and Hamilton equipment aids us at every step.