2023-04-26 コロンビア大学
コロンビア大学のTomislav Rovis教授とSanat Kumar教授、およびコロラド州立大学の共同研究者が率いる研究チームは、混合プラスチックに万能動的架橋剤と呼ばれる特別な設計の小分子を送り込む新しい方法を考案しました。これにより、混合プラスチックを互換性のあるものに変換することができ、再利用可能な新しいポリマー材料を作成することができます。
この新しい方法は、元のポリマーを破壊することなく、リサイクルにおけるプラスチックの混合物を再利用するための可能性があります。
＜関連情報＞
- https://www.engineering.columbia.edu/news/upcycling-mixed-plastics-solution-rooted-new-chemistry
- https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-05858-3
動的架橋による非混和性混合プラスチックの相溶化 Dynamic crosslinking compatibilizes immiscible mixed plastics
Ryan W. Clarke,Tobias Sandmeier,Kevin A. Franklin,Dominik Reich,Xiao Zhang,Nayan Vengallur,Tarak K. Patra,Robert J. Tannenbaum,Sabin Adhikari,Sanat K. Kumar,Tomislav Rovis & Eugene Y.-X. Chen
Nature Published:26 April 2023
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-05858-3
Abstract
The global plastics problem is a trifecta, greatly affecting environment, energy and climate1,2,3,4. Many innovative closed/open-loop plastics recycling or upcycling strategies have been proposed or developed5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16, addressing various aspects of the issues underpinning the achievement of a circular economy17,18,19. In this context, reusing mixed-plastics waste presents a particular challenge with no current effective closed-loop solution20. This is because such mixed plastics, especially polar/apolar polymer mixtures, are typically incompatible and phase separate, leading to materials with substantially inferior properties. To address this key barrier, here we introduce a new compatibilization strategy that installs dynamic crosslinkers into several classes of binary, ternary and postconsumer immiscible polymer mixtures in situ. Our combined experimental and modelling studies show that specifically designed classes of dynamic crosslinker can reactivate mixed-plastics chains, represented here by apolar polyolefins and polar polyesters, by compatibilizing them via dynamic formation of graft multiblock copolymers. The resulting in-situ-generated dynamic thermosets exhibit intrinsic reprocessability and enhanced tensile strength and creep resistance relative to virgin plastics. This approach avoids the need for de/reconstruction and thus potentially provides an alternative, facile route towards the recovery of the endowed energy and materials value of individual plastics.
