Medical Use For Waste Television Screens
Waste material from discarded televisions could be recycled and used in medicine, according to new research by scientists at the UK’s University of York.
The chemical compound polyvinyl-alcohol (PVA) is widely used in industry and is a key element of television sets with liquid crystal display (LCD) technology. When these sets are thrown away, the LCD panels are usually incinerated or buried in landfill sites.
Researchers have now found a way of recovering PVA from television screens and transforming it into a substance suitable for use in tissue scaffolds which help parts of the body regenerate. They can also be used in pills and dressings that are designed to deliver drugs to particular parts of the body.
Professor James Clark, director of the York Green Chemistry Centre of Excellence and one of the author's of the research, said: "With 2.5 billion liquid crystal displays already reaching the end of their life, and LCD televisions proving hugely popular with consumers, that is a huge amount of potential waste to manage.”
The researchers have developed a technique where recovered material is heated in water in a microwave and washed in ethanol to produced "expanded PVA".
One of this material's key properties is that it does not provoke a response from the human immune system, making it suitable for use in biomedicine.
reference:
Expanding the potential for waste polyvinyl-alcohol.
Andrew J. Hunt et al
Green Chemistry, 2009; DOI: 10.1039/b906607a
Link to Green Chem abstract
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