Hello. I would like to carry out an investigation on plastics/polymers. My questions are:

1. What are the latest researches chemists doing?

2. Are there researches suitable to be done in a high school laboratory?

3. Where should I look for the relevant information?

 

Thanks a lot!

what do you want to find out?

My boyfriend works in polymer chemistry at the moment (I myself am an organic chemist, so not much help). A great place to start looking for what people are doing is on the Science scientific journal website (you can get it on science.com).

 

There's a lot of work currently going into finding biodegradable polymer plastics for use in things like plastic bags, take away cups etc. There's also a lot being done using polymers to formulate some drug delivery systems.

 

Unfortunately, a lot of stuff that polymer chemists do involves working on a nano scale, which involves lots of expensive equipment you wouldn't get in high school. I think the synthesis of nylon is something you can do at a high school level, but that's maybe the extent of it.