Photodegradation

Photodegradation

==========

Ricardo Garcia Diaz A01374575

Photodegradation of polymers

“Love is in the air but the air is highly polluted”

― Amit Abraham

Pollution has been a problem for many years since the industrial revolution. Each day we produce more pollution/wastes that affect the environment and therefore prejudice us, but society cares more about money and the system working. And in some way they are right because if production reduces the system would collapse, but we still need to do something to protect the environment.

“We won't have a society left to protect if we destroy the environment”-Margaret Mead.

We know pollution will not be reduced until we find a permanent solution or cease all type of activity that causes it. So, what do we do? There are many things being done at the moment to try to protect the environment. One of them is using photodegradable polymers. The reason this is being done is because polymers are used in our daily lives in almost everything. They make up plastic, some crystals, car parts, etc. So if polymers are one of the most common things used in our lives then it is logical that they produce a lot of waste (when we throw them away). This is why photodegradable polymers are being made,so they don't contaminate and they can degrade once we don´t use them anymore.

In order to understand any further, we need to know what a photodegradable polymer is. By definition, a photodegradable polymer is one that biodegrades when it has contact with light. The light causes an electron in the chemical structure of the polymer to transfer, or shift, thus causing the molecules to come apart, which is what biodegradability is all about. Photodegradable polymers are very common nowadays and are an alternate offer for common plastic polymers, because they pollute less. But there is a slight problem in using photodegradable polymers, because they are not the right kind of degradable (or the one we need).

What I mean by this is that even though photodegradable polymers are better for the environment than normal plastics, they are not as efficient as we need them to be. Because they only degrade if they make contact with light. But a lot of the waste we produce gets lost in piles of more waste and never has contact with light, and if the polymers don´t have contact with the light they never become biodegradable and they pollute our environment. And even if they have contact with light, the process is too slow and it takes months, sometimes years for the polymer to biodegrade. and it doesn´t have the effect we want it to have.

Despite everything, I