New Catalyst to Help Achieve Renewable Adhesives and Coatings
Research discovery will enable the manufacturing of bio-renewable materials from trees and corn.
A team of scientists led by University of Minnesota Twin Cities researchers has invented a new catalyst technology that converts renewable materials like trees and corn to the key chemicals — acrylic acid and acrylates — used in coatings and superabsorbent polymers. The new catalyst technology is reportedly also highly efficient, which means lower costs for manufacturing renewable chemicals.
The new catalyst formulation converts lactic acid-based chemicals derived from corn to acrylic acid and acrylates with the highest yield achieved to date. The researchers report that the technology exhibits substantially higher performance when benchmarked against other classes of leading catalysts.