Materials Chemistry

What’s your biodegradable coffee cup made of – and how biodegradable is it?

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Has your local coffee shop recently switched to biodegradable cups? Or maybe your workplace canteen has made the switch to biodegradable cutlery? Perhaps the plastic packaging of your favourite magazine is now a biodegradable wrapper? You might wonder what materials are behind these biodegradable products, and exactly how much better they are for the environment than the materials they’ve replaced. Here, we explore these biodegradable plastics, and how they stack up against conventional ones.

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C&EN – Lightbulbs preview

How do different light bulbs work? – in C&EN

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C&EN – Lightbulbs preview
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Light bulbs come in different shapes, sizes, and types. How do these different types of bulb work? This month’s edition of Periodic Graphics in Chemical & Engineering News sheds some light on the materials different bulbs use and compares their attributes. View the full graphic on the C&EN site.

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Why can leaves cause rail delays_

Why can leaves cause train delays? The chemistry of leaves on the line

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Why can leaves cause rail delays_
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Autumn is here, and for most of us, it’s a time of beauty as the leaves cascade through an array of hues before pirouetting down from the trees. If you have to travel by train, however, you might tire of ‘leaves on the line’ being the supposed cause of train delays. It turns out to be more than just a flimsy excuse – and particular chemical reactions are partly to blame.
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