Pages

▼

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Make your own plastic for RepRap

Vik has discovered a useful web page on the synthesis of polymers. It's at:

http://www.chemsoc.org/networks/learnnet/green/docs/plastics.pdf

The one we're considering is polymerising lactic acid, as that can be made by fermenting starch from biomass (which is self-replicating, like RepRap...).
at

5 comments:

  1. Forrest HiggsJanuary 19, 2006 5:19 AM

    Great! I popped this link over to Professor Morris. That's quite a little cookbook! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. AlexJanuary 19, 2006 11:25 AM

    Now there's a COOL idea, and one that gets round a problem in this RepRapRelated Cory Doctorow story:

    Link

    ReplyDelete
  3. vik-olliverJanuary 21, 2006 12:04 AM

    I've added a section on lactic acid to the Wiki.

    Please do improve it, add formulae, diagrams and whatever to make it less boring :)

    Vik :v)

    ReplyDelete
  4. GuyJanuary 24, 2006 9:17 PM

    Very cool doc. Gonna keep that one.
    Polystyrene originally came from the styrex tree and I know from personal experience that douglas fir sap can be cooked down into a hard polymer almost identical to polyester resin.

    ReplyDelete
  5. JoelFebruary 21, 2006 6:48 AM

    It's also possible to make formaldehyde from methanol (perhaps from fermentation), from which you can make acetal (delrin). This isn't biodegradable, but it's bio-origin...a carbon sink. Plus, it's a kick-ass engineering plastic that can be injection-molded at 120 C.

    ReplyDelete