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(source: Eindhoven official website) according to foreign media reports, researchers from Eindhoven University of technology found that the processing performance of the new recyclable plastic glass like polymers (vitrimers) is not only affected by temperature, but also by density. In the automotive industry, such discoveries help drive the production of recyclable dashboards. As we all know, the commercialization of glass like polymer is very difficult to recycle, which is easy to cause environmental pollution. This mainly refers to hard plastic or thermosetting plastic, such as billiards or automobile dashboard. Another kind of plastic, thermoplastic, is easy to recycle, but its strength is poor. This kind of material is often used in industry to make aluminum foil, coffee cup or toys. In 2011, scientists developed a new plastic, glass like polymer, which is as strong as hard plastic and can be recycled. However, the commercialization of glass like polymers is still a long way to go. In order to achieve this, manufacturers need to understand how to change material properties and promote their applications. To a large extent, however, scientists still have no idea how the substance works. The influence of temperature on glass like polymers liesbeth Janssen, physicist at Eindhoven University of science and technology, Simone ciarella, doctoral student and Rutger biezemans, Bachelor of science, developed computer models to observe the effect of temperature and density on glass like polymers. "Now we have a better understanding of the physical composition of this material," Janssen said. We hope that in the follow-up projects, we can produce real recyclable plastics to meet the needs of the industry. " According to the machinability model, the brittleness of glass like polymer determines its machinability. "Fragility refers to the rate at which a material changes from a solid to a liquid, and vice versa," ciarella said. The lower the brittleness, the easier the plastic will be processed and the better the recyclability of the material will be. " Liesbeth Janssen and colleagues learned more about and predicted the impact of this brittleness and adjusted it. It seems that the brittleness of the material can be changed by adjusting its density. In this way, the manufacturer can set the expected behavior accurately in the future. These phenomena can be explained by understanding the physical properties of three kinds of plastics. Plastics are made up of long chains of polymers. There are many connections between the long chains of thermosetting plastics, so the strength is very large. However, heating will cause these connections to be irreversibly disconnected, so the recovery capacity is poor. There is no connection in the thermoplastic, so it is easy to deform at high temperature, but the strength is not enough. "Interestingly, glass like polymers do have many connections," ciarella said. However, during heating, these connections switch between different chains. Therefore, at room temperature, these glass like polymers behave as well as thermosetting materials. When heated, it will melt and retain its quality, just like the deformable thermoplastic. "