SinodosChemistry

Volatile Organic Compounds [VOCs] are some of our times’ most important polluters. Many of them have been correlated to adverse health effects such as skin irritation, cyanosis, convulsions, high toxicity, carcinogenicity, kidney damages, liver damages, brain damages, asthma, and others. A group of them has been regarded as air pollutants by USEPA. They derive mainly from a range of human related activities, such as industrial processes, construction, indoor generation, and transportation. Theoretically any product or activity including polymeric compounds could be a potential VOC emitter. When referring to health adverse effects indoors, VOCs are considered as contributors to the sick building syndrome. World Health Organization [WHO] uses a classification for indoor pollutants, based solely on their respective boiling points:

• Very Volatile Organic Compounds – VVOC with boiling points in the range 50-100 °C
• Volatile Organic Compounds – VOC with boiling points from 50-100 °C to 240-260 °C and relative pressure higher than 10^-2 kPa
• Semi Volatile Organic Compounds with boiling points from 240-260 °C to 380-400 °C and relative pressures in the range 10^-2 – 10^-8 kPa.

Greece has been in the middle of a severe crisis since 2009. At least, this is what most people think. Inside Greece and abroad. The reality however, is tremendously different! Greece has been in crisis since 1981, just people and politicians either did not realize it or looked the other way, as former Germany and EU leaders have admitted during the last years. "Greece should never had been admitted into the Eurozone" former Germany leader stated. And this, unfortunately is so true. Greece has done evdrything in its power to destroy its industrial production, especially during the last 40 years. Greece, 40 years ago had a mediocre production of metals, fertilizers, cars [yes], household electrical appliances and so many more. The two and half political parties that governed Greece in the last 40 years have destroyed the productive class of greeks. All goverments, as they still openly do, have over- taxed the productive sector in favor of their voters, in a highly 'clientelistic' way as european liberal's leader finally stated in the european council's meeting of July 8, 2015.

Polymers have been mostly produced from petrochemicals since their discovery. Petrochemicals, due to their large production offered a wide base for uncounted polymers. However, one great disadvantage of petrochemical based polymers is that they are most commonly non degradable and non bio degradable. Such an attribute makes their continuous use impossible due to pollution effects. Such known pollution effects come from everyday objects such as polyester cups, plates and others, contributing to the phenomenon termed 'white pollution'. Numerous research works have been devoted to producing bio degradble polymers or proper techniques to degrade such non degradable polymers. Such techniques involve, but are not limited to photo- oxidation, thermal degradation, catalytic degradation, and others.

Great advances have been made especially in the last decade in terms of computational power of clouds. This increase has made possible to perform calculations and accumulate knowledge corresponding to whole decades of experimental research on atomic and molecular properties. Such computational results are highly valuable both to the scientific academic community and entrerprise community. Such knowledge exceeds all known properties up to date, derived by experimental work.

On 10 July, 2015 it was announced that Denmark reached a 100% efficiency of electricity generation based on wind energy. This is a historical record worldwide; actually the generation of energy via the wind generators reached as high as 140% of the daily needs of Denmark. Excess energy was exported to Germany, Norway and Sweden. In average, wind energy generation accounts for less than fossil fuels energy generation. However, until 2020 Denmark will be able to generate more than 50% of its yearly needs from renewable sources. This amazing goals seems more than achievable since Denmark is one of the countries hevily investing in renewable energy sources. This trend is expected to continue and press the oil prices even lower in the years to come.

An amazing advance in coatings technology is the new superhydrophobic coatings that exhibit self cleaning properties. Super Hydrophobicity is expressed in contact angle values that demontrate how well is a water drop in contact with a solid surface. Different methodologies exist on turning a hydro phillic surface into a super hydrophobic one but all of them depend on two properties; surface roughness and surface free energy. As the surface energy is lowered, surfaces are turned into hydrophobic ones. Such minimization of energies can occur either by structural changes [for example introduction of surface roughness] or chemical ones [chlorination of surface or other chemical modifications].

3D printing or additive manufacturing is propably the next industrial revolution, ready to burst. 3D printing allows for literally any object, of any size, to be manufactured without the use of industrial equipment. For any object to be manufactured only a few steps are followed. First, a designer creates the necessary 3D designs of the object. Then, the computer aided softwate [CAD] guides the 3D printer into creating the object in a layer by layer fashion. It has been recorded that huge saving of materials, up to 50% is achieved by using additive manufacturing methodologies. 3D printing materials are somehow limited at the time being, but are increasing in numbers quickly. They currently involve ABS, some thermoplastics, resins, and others.