Prof. Richard Wool was quoted in a March 9 Norfolk Virginian-Pilot about paper versus plastic shopping bags.

Carbon dioxide. Orange peels. Chicken feathers. Olive oil. Potato peels. E. coli bacteria. It is as if chemists have gone Dumpster diving in their hunt to make biodegradable, sustainable and renewable plastics. Most bioplastics are made from plants like corn, soy, sugar cane and switch grass, but scientists have recently turned to trash in an effort to make so-called green polymers, essentially plastics from garbage. ...
Arctical by NONNY DE LA PEÑA Read More on New York Times

Professor of Chemical Engineering Richard Wool was gratified to hear that An Inconvenient Truth, the documentary that tells the story of Al Gore’s lifelong commitment to reversing the effects of global climate change, had won two Academy Awards. Like Gore, Wool believes that we have been ignoring messages about threats to our environment for too long. “Despite what scientists have been telling us, it’s been business as usual,” he says. ...
Arctical by Diane Kukich Read More on CCM Newsletter

A University of Delaware-built circuit board made from soybeans and chicken feathers is drawing a great deal of attention at the Science Museum in London, which will open a free exhibition featuring innovative new mobile phone technology on Wednesday, March 29. ...
Article by Neil Thomas Read More on UDaily

Chemical engineering Professor Richard P. Wool has published a seminal paper that documents a new approach to understanding the molecular aspects of adhesion at polymer-polymer interfaces. Appearing in a special issue of French journal Comptes Redus * , Wool's paper presents a theory that successfully unifies a large body of experimental work done on this topic. ...
Arctical by Diane Kukich Read More on CCM Newsletter

The opportunities for designing polymers and developing polymerization processes that are safe, prevent pollution, and are more efficient in the use of materials and energy are enormous, judging by the breadth of topics discussed several weeks ago at a symposium on green polymer chemistry.
Arctical by Michael Freemantle Read More on CE& N

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has awarded a four-year, $500,000 bio-based products grant to a University of Delaware research group working to develop advanced materials from chicken feathers and soybean oil.
Article by Neil Thomas Read More on UDaily

A jury has unanimously accepted the addition of composite materials made from waste chicken feathers and soy resins developed at the University of Delaware to the prestigious library of the Materials ConneXion of New York and Milan. ...
Article by Neil Thomas Read More on UDaily

In late June, a chemical engineer from the University of Delaware filed a patent that described a new generation of microchips. The patent proposes to replace silicon -- which has long served as the basis for microchips -- with another material. And what might this mystery component be? Chicken feathers.

Richard Wool understands that nonspecialists will find this strange. But he's used to it. Wool and his colleagues at the university's ACRES project (Affordable Composites from Renewable Sources) have been developing new uses for plant fibers, oils and resins. Using such raw materials as the humble soybean, Wool and his colleagues are designing prototypes for everything from simple adhesives to hurricane-proof roofs.
Article by Louis Jacobson Read More on Washington Post

Delaware could become the center of the emerging bio-based materials industry as the result of a major U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) grant to expand research being conducted by the University of Delaware's Affordable Composites from Renewable Sources (ACRES) program, which has developed techniques to manufacture soy-based plastics.
Article by Neil Thomas Read More on UDaily

Stronger materials for aircraft, farm equipment, medical devices and consumer products may result from UD research showing how hot polymer chains coil back and snap forward, snake-like, leaving a telltale, rippling "signature" wherever plastics are joined together. ...
Article by Ginger Pinholster Read More on UpDate

UD scientists have developed a patent-pending technique that uses soybean oil-rather than petroleum-derived resins-to produce inexpensive, lightweight and potentially biodegradable composites for tractors, supercars, bridges and military vehicles. ...
Article by Ginger Pinholster Read More on UpDate