New rubber sources.It seems that the only place that doesn't contain elastomeric material is my joints. The October issue of Nature reports that scientists in Australia have produced a near-perfect rubber from resilin res·i·lin n. An elastic substance consisting of cross-linked protein chains, found in the cuticles of many insects. [resil(e) + -in.] , the elastic protein which gives fleas their jumping ability and bees the ability to flap their wings 500 million times in a life cycle. Earlier this year, a Cornell University Cornell University, mainly at Ithaca, N.Y.; with land-grant, state, and private support; coeducational; chartered 1865, opened 1868. It was named for Ezra Cornell, who donated $500,000 and a tract of land. With the help of state senator Andrew D. professor said there is a way to make polymers using limonene lim·o·nene n. A liquid, C10H16, with a characteristic lemonlike fragrance, used as a solvent, wetting agent, and dispersing agent and in the manufacture of resins. oxide and carbon dioxide carbon dioxide, chemical compound, CO2, a colorless, odorless, tasteless gas that is about one and one-half times as dense as air under ordinary conditions of temperature and pressure. . Limonene is a carbon-based compound produced in more than 300 plant species. In oranges, limonene makes up about 95% of the oil in the peel. The search for substitute sources of rubber always intensifies when petroleum prices start to spike or there is the possibility of a shortfall in Hevea brasiliensis Noun 1. Hevea brasiliensis - deciduous tree of the Amazon and Orinoco Rivers having leathery leaves and fragrant yellow-white flowers; it yields a milky juice that is the chief source of commercial rubber caoutchouc tree, Para rubber tree production. Both scenarios are converging now, but thankfully quite a bit of new-source investigation has been ongoing for some time. Some of that research is featured in the article, "Biotechnological development of domestic rubber-producing crops," by Cornish, et al, beginning on page 44. Dr. Cornish is with Yulex, a company that is commercializing rubber produced by the guayule gua·yu·le n. A shrub (Parthenium argentatum) of the southwest United States and Mexico whose sap was considered a potential source of natural rubber during World War II. plant, a desert shrub that grows in a temperate climate and is prevalent in the Southwest U.S. Guayule is not new. Use of its latex goes back 80 years. The U.S. government in the late 1970s and early 1980s made it a priority to increase the yield of the plant to use as a domestic rubber source. The guayule plant recently garnered interest as a source for non-allergenic latex. And it is among a growing group of non-heveasources for rubber. Cornish reports that natural rubber (cis-l,4-polyisoprene) is made by more than 2,500 species of higher plants, as well as some fungi. Guayule happens to be one of the most promising; so is the sunflower sunflower, any plant of the genus Helianthus of the family Asteraceae (aster family), annual or perennial herbs native to the New World and common throughout the United States. . Now we also have fleas and who knows how many other insects that might be sources for rubber. With petroleum being a finite resource, and a hevea supply that could be disrupted by nature, blight or politics, our future could be in the hands of flea-ridden orange peels. |
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