Synthetic organic polymers and plastics revolutionised the 20th century and helped shape modern-day society. But a new range of materials with useful properties could be in the pipeline thanks to a catalytic method for making ‘inorganic polystyrene’.
Source: Royal Society of Chemistry
B-arylated polyaminoboranes prepared via catalytic dehydropolymerisation
Polystyrene is an important material in today’s society with its uses ranging from a protective packaging material through to disposable cutlery. Its chemical structure, like the majority of other important synthetic polymeric materials, has a backbone of carbon atoms. To discover new materials with useful properties, researchers have tried to replicate these structures using inorganic chains, with silicone materials being a recent example. Now, Ian Manners and his team from the University of Bristol, UK, have made inorganic polymers out of boron and nitrogen.
Read the full story by Jeremy Allen on Chemistry World.
