September 23rd 2021 – By Promostyl

A New Biosourced Polyamide Alternative?

Polyamides are plastics from the chemical industry and are made from petroleum. They are like nylon and were quickly used in the textile industry for their interesting properties. However, polyamide is a polluting fiber and its manufacture requires a significant consumption of natural resources (energy and oil). In spite of this, it is still widely used because it is a cheap fiber.

Chemist Volker Sieber, and his research team at the Fraunhofer Society and the Technical University of Munich (TUM), have developed a new family of innovative polyamides that can be produced from a by-product of cellulose production. Instead of a linear polymer chain as in traditional polyamides, they have developed a chain that has many small rings of initial material. This gives the polymer true innovative functions.

These new polyamides are technologically impressive because of their special properties that make them strong and attractive for many applications. Indeed, they melt at higher temperatures than crude oil products. In addition, the new compounds can be produced in a transparent, near-crystalline form, which greatly increases their potential for further development using the same initial substance.