The Great Pacific Garbage Patch: A marine pollution problem that affects all of us

by Ignacio Martín-Fabiani*

*Department of Physics, University of Surrey, GU2 7 XH Guildford, United Kingdom. 

I am part of the Soft Matter Group, where we are particularly interested in all sorts of applications of soft materials. The project I am working on aims to develop new paints and coatings which are more environmentally friendly than the ones in the market. So I could say I am living proof that you can get a salary for watching paint dry! 

Until now, I have been preaching the benefits and wonders of polymers and plastics (find out why I think we live in a world of plastic spaghetti and  watching paint dry is fun). But today´s post is about their main disadvantage: the effect they have on the environment. Nowadays we use disposable plastic at all times: food trays, plastic cups, carrier bags, and wrapping film, are just a few examples. We are generating tons of plastic waste every day. However, a huge amount of these items are not disposed of properly (recycled) and they mostly end up in rivers and, eventually, in the sea.  And once they arrive there, their fate is determined by the sea surface currents, which moves them from one place to another.

Polluted Beach on the Red Sea in Sharm el-Naga, Port Safaga, Egypt.

Via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

Of Paints and Varnishes: Watching Paint Dry can be Fun

by Ignacio Martín-Fabiani*

Department of Physics, University of Surrey, GU2 7 XH Guildford, United Kingdom.

*I am part of the Soft Matter Group, where we are particularly interested in all sorts of applications of soft materials. The project I am working on aims to develop new paints and coatings which are more environmentally friendly than the ones in the market. So I could say I am living proof that you can get a salary for watching paint dry!

Have you ever wondered what is paint made of? And why a milky liquid like a varnish becomes transparent when it dries? Well, I will try to provide answers to these questions in this post. The main component of any paint or varnish is a dispersion of small particles in a liquid. How small? Really small. And how small is that?

The basic component of paint is a dispersion of very small plastic particles in water: A latex. Image by tookapic,  via Pixabay. CCO 1.0 Public Domain.

What polymers are: A world of plastic spaghetti

by Ignacio Martín-Fabiani*

Department of Physics, University of Surrey, GU2 7 XH Guildford, United Kingdom.

*I am part of the Soft Matter Group, where we are particularly interested in all sorts of applications of soft materials. The project I am working on aims to develop new paints and coatings which are more environmentally friendly than the ones in the market. So I could say I am living proof that you can get a salary for watching paint dry!

Think of the plastic bags you use when you go shopping. Now, think of the bottles of water you buy at the supermarket. And of the gloves that you put on before doing the dishes. What do these things have in common? One could say: ‘They are all plastics’. And he or she would be right, for these things share certain characteristics such as flexibility or low weight that make our brain classify them in the same category. But what if I asked you what do these things have in common with silk, wool or the material your eyeglasses are made of? Then you would probably have not a clue. But they do share something that is true for all the materials I mentioned since the beginning of the text. If you were able to have a look at them under a very powerful microscope, you would see they are made of very long chains. And these chains are completely entangled, looking like a plate of spaghetti (see Fig. 1a). 

 Figure 1. (a) Polymer chains are entangled like a spaghetti plate! (b) Different daily life items made of polymers. All images via Pixabay, Public Domain Dedication (CC).