This discovery, published in the journal Nature, could help solve one of the most important environmental problems in the world.
The authors focused their project onPolyethylene terephthalate (PET) is an important polymer found in most packaging, bottles, fibers and textiles. It accounts for 12% of all waste in the world.
A new enzyme was able to break down plastic into moresmall pieces (this is called depolymerization) and then chemically put it back together (repolymerization). In some cases, plastics have been completely broken down into monomers in as little as 24 hours.
The researchers used a machine modellearning to create new mutations in a naturally occurring enzyme called PETase, which allows bacteria to break down PET plastic. The model predicts which enzyme mutations will help it quickly break down plastic at low temperatures.
An enzyme created according to the “predictions” of a neural networkwas able to degrade PET plastics very effectively at temperatures from 30 to 50 °C and over a wide pH range. It also almost completely decomposed 51 types of products made from the same plastic in a week. Some experiments took as little as 24 hours.
Scientists have also demonstrated the processclosed-loop PET processing, in which a new enzyme was used to break down plastics, and then the recovered monomers were used to chemically reconstruct the material.
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