monomers

Chemical recycling converts PET into its constitutive monomers, and to (re)produce a TPA-derived plastic from the monomers requires a not inexpensive (re)polymerization step, in addition to reshaping and remolding.

We break Fats and Carbs down to their monomers to ingest them into the body (enzymes etc in the Gut).

The polymers themselves are formed of chains of smaller monomers covalently bonded to each other.

A better alternative is de-polymerization, turning the plastic into monomers (or at least oligopolymers).

The authors' claim is that it is cheaper than other catalytic methods that have been explored/invented to depolymerize PET into TPA monomers.

> In the initial tests, one of the monomers was a common food additive called sodium hexametaphosphate and the other was any of several guanidinium ion-based monomers.

An intermediate step between recycling and combustion would be disassembling the plastics back to useful feedstocks, potentially including monomers of the plastics involved.

For example: in the Carbohydrate family, we have Starches or Glycogen; a polymer of Glucose monomers.

Like plastics recycling the basic problem is that it competes with plastic monomers and other bottom-of-pyramid substances that cost about 50 cents a pound.

By loading the brain here with monomers, they kill the organ, whereas you can still use the transparent heart if you reload it with cells.

If you put almost any RNA molecule in a jar together with monomers, you can wait until the end of time to see its replication.

Summary: infuse brain with hydrogel monomers, polymerize to form permeable polymer matrix, remove lipids with vigorous electrophoresis, bingo, transparent brain.

Plastics as in "polymers made of small organic monomers" are sort of a universal solution.

It says "Leveraging the trace amounts of moisture in air, the broken-down PET is converted into monomers—the crucial building blocks for plastics.

Generally speaking the "green" plastics like PLA or PE have non-toxic monomers and are not nearly as durable as the "non-green" plastics like polycarb family, speaking generally, etc.

From there, the researchers envision the monomers could be recycled into new PET products or other, more valuable materials." I don't know if there's some enormous challenge hiding behind the word "envision", but I'm assuming it's a closed system until something useful comes out of the other end.