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GNDU Researchers led by Dr Kang find a Sustainable Way to Degrade Plastic

Amritsar March 04 2022 (Yes Punjab News)
The ever increasing usage of polythene leads to various environmental issues via its accumulation in the marine and terrestrial environment (250 million ton per year) as polythene degrades very slowly in the environment.

The team of researchers at Department of Chemistry, Guru Nanak Dev University led by Dr. Tejwant Singh Kang has finds a sustainable way to degrade polythene at a faster rate. The team identified new solvent system wherein polythene can be dissolved under milder conditions and degraded simultaneously. The research work has been published in one of the prestigious international journals, Green chemistry, published by Royal Society of Chemistry, London.

Dr. Kang added “Polythene in the environment is polluting our soil, water and choking the sewage system as no sustainable method for its easy processing exists. The team has been working on the issue for last two years and finally got very promising results. The results provide new insights into pollutant-degrading solvent system under mild conditions.”The team is also exploring other opportunities for further enhancing the chemical degradation of polythene.

He said that the research team has utilised photocatalysis under white light in a deep eutectic solvent to dissolve and simultaneously degrade polythene. The degraded material has been characterized for its structure and properties via various instrumental techniques. The reduction in molecular weight and introduction of polar functional groups in degraded polythene are expected to be beneficial for recycling.

“The results will not only prompt other researchers to find new environment friendly ways to degrade polythene but also would facilitate the research towards chemical degradation of other useful but hard to degrade polymers” added Prof. Sukhprit Singh, Head Department of Chemistry.

Prof. Jaspal Singh Sandhu, Vice-Chancellor while congratulating the team said that the University is promoting the research culture by providing various state of art research facilities to the researchers, which eventually leads to cutting-edge research in the University.

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