Researchers at the Molecular Foundry of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have worked with a team from the Scripps Research Institute to develop a faster and easier method to produce sulphur - containing polymers . In creating a polysulfonate "necklace" with SuFEx, the researchers identified ethenesulfonyl fluoride-amine/aniline and bisphenol ether as good "beads" to use and found that using bifluoride salt as a catalyst made the previously slow reaction "click" into action. The method is expected to significantly reduce the cost of large - scale production . The scientists created long chains of linked sulphur - containing molecules using " chain chemistry " , a term for high - yield , controllable reactions . The reaction needs up to 1,000 times less catalyst than most popular methods , reducing both material and disposal costs .
Researchers at the Molecular Foundry of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have worked with a team from the Scripps Research Institute to develop a faster and easier method to produce sulphur - containing polymers . The method is expected to significantly reduce the cost of large - scale production . The scientists created long chains of linked sulphur - containing molecules using " chain chemistry " , a term for high - yield , controllable reactions . The reaction needs up to 1,000 times less catalyst than most popular methods , reducing both material and disposal costs .