Unlocking the power of 3

Citation

(2009), "Unlocking the power of 3", Pigment & Resin Technology, Vol. 38 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/prt.2009.12938fad.013

Unlocking the power of 3

Article Type: New products From: Pigment & Resin Technology, Volume 38, Issue 6

New software developed by two researchers can help develop more environmentally friendly products, as well as assessing chemicals for REACH. The new software toolkit is based on Hansen solubility parameters (HSP), effectively three numbers that can capture how a chemical behaves in relation to others. A typical environmental scenario would be: “How do I substitute a solvent with one that is safer, cheaper and with a lower environmental impact?” Without the newly developed toolkit, the answer to this question would entail a number of laborious data analyses. With the Hansen Solubility Parameter in Practice (HSPiP) package, all this becomes possible. The package includes a full e-book to provide access to a host of practical examples showing this technique in practice plus a large dataset ready for use. Prof. Abbott, one of the researchers behind this project, says: “Unlocking the full power of HSP will enable scientists to create products that are more environmentally friendly, for example, by developing better bioplastics and more efficient control of nano particles dispersion. In addition, thanks to HSPiP it is now possible to calculate an easy REACH ‘read-across’ system to assess the health and environmental impact of a large range of chemicals.” The new software, developed by Dr Hansen and Prof. Abbott, together with a full set of explanatory notes, video tutorials and the theory behind it, is available online at: www.hansen-solubility.com/index.php? id=13 (Figure 1).

Figure 1 New software cuts time for laboratory analyses