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Robin Cywar, PI: Eugene Chen

CSU Department of Chemistry

Challenges in Plastic Recycling

Objective

To prepare and chemically recycle a plastic

material with green catalysts and methods

What was known:

❖ Monomers with the

‘gene’ for full chemical recyclability

can be (de)polymerized by metal-based catalysts.

❖ Organic (metal-free) catalysts have demonstrated

sustainability & performance advantages:

economic, environmental, polymer applications

What we aimed to discover:

❖ Efficient, metal-free catalyst systems to make and

completely disassemble polymers

❖ Advantages over metal catalysts

❖ Mechanical properties of the recyclable plastic material

How is plastic made?

❖ Plastics are made of polymers

❖ Monomers become polymers by a repetitive chemical

reaction

❖ Different monomers lead to different physical

properties: melting temperature, flexibility, strength, etc.

❖ Metal catalysts are often used to reduce energy input

and control molecular-level structure

Results

Design & Results

Conclusions & Ongoing work

References & Acknowledgments

❖ Organic catalysts led to several advantages: ▪ Higher yield

▪ Higher molecular weight (good for mechanical properties) ▪ Less purification required (less waste)

▪ Increased thermal stability (no metal contamination)

❖ Methods could be scaled up to prepare large samples for

mechanical testing

▪ Structure/property relationships of recyclable monomer/polymer systems being studied in Chen lab/start-up company, SusMer

❖ International collaborators are evaluating the plastic ▪ As a packaging material (gas barrier properties)

▪ As a membrane material (water purification)

I.

Hypothesis-driven search for the best catalyst system

❑ Reaction rate

❑ Structural control

(molecular weight & uniformity) ❑ Depolymerization (100%)

❑ Compare to metal catalysts

Metal-based Organic

II.

Scale-up best performing system

❑ Produce large quantities for mechanical testing

❑ Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA): How do material properties change with heat? i.e., what temperature is the plastic [melt]

processable?

❑ Tensile analysis: how far and with how much force can the material be stretched?

❑ Compare data to other plastics

❖ Professor Eugene Chen, Dr. Jianbo Zhu

❖Szekely Group (collaborators) – KAUST, Saudi Arabia ❖Sardon Group (collaborators) – BERC-POLYMAT, Spain

Strong & hard material,

little to no ductility Polymer processable as viscous liquid Polymer is solid

Forward and reverse polymerizations with optimal organic catalysts

1H NMR evidence for chemical recyclability; *signals

from catalyst or solvent Polymer

Polymer (Before recycling)

Monomer (Starting)

Monomer (After recycling)

 Dog-bone shaped

sample for tensile analysis

4 x 3” mold with compression molded polymer →

Tensile Analysis Dynamic Mechanical Analysis

Polymer sample after DMA testing→

1. Cywar, R.M., J.-B. Zhu, and E. Y.-X. Chen, Polymer Chemistry, 2019, 3097-3106.

2. Hong, M. and E. Y.-X. Chen, Nature Chemistry, 2016, 8, 42-49.

3. Zhu, J.-B.; Watson, E. M.; Tang, J.; Chen, E. Y.-X. Science 2018, 360, 398–403.

4. Zhu, J.-B. and E.Y.-X. Chen, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2018, 57, 12558-12562.

References

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