Waste material from discarded televisions could be recycled and used in medicine: Researchers at the University of York have 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. It can also be used in pills and dressings.

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.

According to research at the University of York, there is 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. It can also be used in pills and dressings that are designed to deliver drugs to particular parts of the body.

The research is by five academics in the University's Department of Chemistry, which is home to the York Green Chemistry Centre of Excellence and the York Liquid Crystal Group, and is published in the journal Green Chemistry.

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.

Quelle: AlphaGalileo

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