MUNDOMATERIAL

Bioplastics and other new materials offering environmental advantages have created a bit of confusion with the terms related with their source and end of life. I would like to shed some light in some of vocabulary used, starting with perhaps the less defined and yet more important word: Bioplastic: Plastic obtained from natural and renewable sources Most bioplastics are biodegradable and compostable, but they do not need to be in order to be classified as bioplastics. Similarly, not all bioplastics are sustainable. In Brazil, for example, there has been a lot of interest in obtaining traditional plastics from soy and other fast growing crops. Even though it sounds great, there are concerns about the impact these crops may have on the rain forest surface. To better understand the differences between new bioplastics, it is important to have some concepts clear. I have divided the vocabulary in two main aspects: sourcing of the raw materials and degradation process of the bioplastic. Degradation... 
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While living in England, I bought a bicycle and I used it to move around in my daily errands. To me it’s just a brilliant form of transport, although for many out there is much more than that. But what about the materials used in bicycles, do you know them? I’ve been asking around and it seems a lot is going on in the fascinating world of bicycles. So, let’s do a quick tour looking at materials used in the different parts of a bicycle, to then move to the newest trends in design. Of course, I’ll have some interesting examples of what you can do with the old but never aging bicycle. Looking for general information about bicycles I’ve found this great image in wikipedia, which saves me explaining all the different parts you can find in a modern bike. If you want to look at other great bicycle images, follow this wikimedia commons link. bicycle diagram. Source: wikipedia, author: AI2 Materials There are many available options for a bicycle designer. I asked a... 
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Earlier in Septembre the Center for the Polyurethanes Industry (CPI) part of the American Chemistry Council (ACC) announced the 8 finalists for the Innovation awards that will be voted attendees of “Polyurethanes 2008 Technical Conference”, to be held in San Antonio. There are three different categories for the awards chemical: Merquinsa, Ashland Performance Materials y BASF processing equipment: Graco y KrausMaffei finished products: Acma Industries, BASF y co-finalistas Fenner Precision y HP Labs You may remember my post from the 21st July, Renewable TPEs, where I discussed Merquinsa‘s new product, Pearlthane® ECO, for which is being nominated. It consists of a range of thermoplasic polyurethanes, TPUs, with a renewable content ranging from 30 to 90%. BASF is also nominated for introducing renewable content. In particular for its range of natural poliols, BALANCE, used in the production of polyurethane foam. The third nominee is Ashland Performance Materials, for... 
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Today’s post is an invitation. I ask you to propose and vote for those real materials that could have come out of a sci-fi story. And I think you deserve a bit of an explanation on how I decided to write such a peculiar post. At the risk of sounding like a nerd, I love science fiction! I think I was hooked when I first saw Blade Runner on the cinema. Years later, my friends studying Political Sciences did a report analysing sci-fi movies and the social structures they portrayed (what is used as a money, what are the main conflicts and how are they solved, etc). It was while I join one of their very creative sessions, watching Mad Max, that I realised what science fiction is all about: what we really are, what we may become and/or what we could aspire to be. I love the freedom provided by this genre to imagine societies and technologies yet to be created. All this introduction to tell you that when Robert Frith, Director of Superblue (design company with the most appropiate name... 
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This post is a follow up of A month without plastic. Since I wrote that, Chris Jeavans has been doing quite well for herself. She has learned some of the dynamics of the downsizing movement, which promotes reduction of all consumed items, and she is applying some of its rules. An example of a total-downsizer is this blog: No impact man. In this case plastic is not the only suspect and this New Yorker tries to reduce his enviromental impact to zero. Challenging, to say the least. Some of the key rules of downsizers are as follows: be aware of the impact of what you consumed be determined measure your progress tell others how to do it All these steps taking by downsizers look very much like those taken by a person on diet, food diet I mean. Chris Jeavans has analysed new product types, like shoes, meat packaging and toiletries. But more importantly, she has found a lot of friends. As it turns out, she is not the first doing this at all. There are quite a few bloggers out there that are... 
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