New material developed by NUS to tackle plastic waste

A research team led by Assoc Prof Hai Minh Duong and Prof Nhan Phan-Thien from the Dept of Mechanical Engineering at NUS Faculty of Engineering has come up with a way to turn plastic bottle waste into a new sponge-like material, called PET aerogels. The aerogels have many useful applications, including oil spill cleaning, carbon dioxide absorption, as well as fire safety applications.