Volume 92, Issue 11

The waste stream of obsolete electronic equipment grows exponentially, creating a worldwide pollution and resource problem. Electrical and electronic waste (e-waste) comprises a heterogeneous mix of glass, plastics (including flame retardants and other additives), metals (including rare Earth elements), and metalloids. The e-waste issue is complex and multi-faceted. In examining the different aspects of e-waste, informal recycling in developing countries has been identified as a primary concern, due to widespread illegal shipments; weak environmental, as well as health and safety, regulations; lack of technology; and inadequate waste treatment structure. For example, Nigeria, Ghana, India, Pakistan, and China have all been identified as hotspots for the disposal of e-waste. This article presents a critical examination on the chemical nature of e-waste and the resulting environmental impacts on, for example, microbial biodiversity, flora, and fauna in e-waste recycling sites around the world. It highlights the different types of risk assessment approaches required when evaluating the ecological impact of e-waste. Additionally, it presents examples of chemistry playing a role in potential solutions. The information presented here will be informative to relevant stakeholders seeking to devise integrated management strategies to tackle this global environmental concern.

This document summarizes and extends definitions and notations for the description of tactic polymers and the diad structures of which they are composed. It formally recognizes and resolves apparent inconsistencies between terminology used in the polymer field to describe tactic polymers and terminology in more common use in organic chemistry. Specifically, the terms m and r diads are recommended to replace the terms meso and racemo diads. The definitions are also updated from those in the existing Stereochemistry Document to use the term ‘stereogenic centre’, rather than ‘chiral or prochiral atoms’. Further, the terms relating to tacticity have been defined for the constituent macromolecules, rather than for the polymers composed of those macromolecules. Therefore, this document also forms an addendum and corrigendum to the 1981 document, ‘Stereochemical definitions and notations relating to polymers’.

This glossary provides a formal vocabulary of terms for concepts in surface analysis and gives clear definitions to those who utilize surface chemical analysis or need to interpret surface chemical analysis results but are not themselves surface chemists or surface spectroscopists.

As increasingly smaller molecular materials and material structures are devised or developed for technological applications, the demands on the processes of lithography now routinely include feature sizes that are of the order of 10 nm. In reaching such a fine level of resolution, the methods of lithography have increased markedly in sophistication and brought into play 2terminology that is unfamiliar, on the one hand, to scientists tasked with the development of new lithographic materials or, on the other, to the engineers who design and operate the complex equipment that is required in modern-day processing. Publications produced by scientists need to be understood by engineers and vice versa , and these commonly arise from collaborative research that draws heavily on the terminology of two or more of the traditional disciplines. It is developments in polymer science and material science that lead progress in areas that cross traditional boundaries, such as microlithography. This document provides the exact definitions of a selection of unfamiliar terms that researchers and practitioners from different disciplines might encounter.