A facile alternative strategy of upcycling mixed plastic waste into vitrimers
Chemical depolymerization has been identified as a promising approach towards recycling of plastic waste. However, complete depolymerization may be energy intensive with complications in purification. In this work, we have demonstrated upcycling of mixed plastic waste comprising a mixture of polyest...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2023
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/170949 |
| _version_ | 1824453734797672448 |
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| author | Ng, Joseph Kok Wei Lim, Jacob Song Kiat Gupta, Nupur Dong, Bing Xue Hu, Chun Po Hu, Jingdan Hu, Xiao |
| author2 | School of Materials Science and Engineering |
| author_facet | School of Materials Science and Engineering Ng, Joseph Kok Wei Lim, Jacob Song Kiat Gupta, Nupur Dong, Bing Xue Hu, Chun Po Hu, Jingdan Hu, Xiao |
| author_sort | Ng, Joseph Kok Wei |
| collection | NTU |
| description | Chemical depolymerization has been identified as a promising approach towards recycling of plastic waste. However, complete depolymerization may be energy intensive with complications in purification. In this work, we have demonstrated upcycling of mixed plastic waste comprising a mixture of polyester, polyamide, and polyurethane through a reprocessable vitrimer of the depolymerized oligomers. Using poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) as a model polymer, we first demonstrated partial controlled depolymerization, using glycerol as a cleaving agent, to obtain branched PET oligomers. Recovered PET (RPET) oligomer was then used as a feedstock to produce a crosslinked yet reprocessable vitrimer (vRPET) despite having a wide molecular weight distribution using a solventless melt processing approach. Crosslinking and dynamic interactions were observed through rheology and dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA). Tensile mechanical studies showed no noticeable decrease in mechanical strength over multiple repeated melt processing cycles. Consequently, we have clearly demonstrated the applicability of the above method to upcycle mixed plastic wastes into vitrimers and reprocessable composites. This work also afforded insights into a potentially viable alternative route for utilization of depolymerized plastic/mixed plastic waste into crosslinked vitrimer resins manifesting excellent mechanical strength, while remaining reprocessable/ recyclable for cyclical lifetime use. |
| first_indexed | 2025-02-19T03:11:08Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | ntu-10356/170949 |
| institution | Nanyang Technological University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-02-19T03:11:08Z |
| publishDate | 2023 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | ntu-10356/1709492023-10-13T15:46:45Z A facile alternative strategy of upcycling mixed plastic waste into vitrimers Ng, Joseph Kok Wei Lim, Jacob Song Kiat Gupta, Nupur Dong, Bing Xue Hu, Chun Po Hu, Jingdan Hu, Xiao School of Materials Science and Engineering Rolls-Royce@NTU Corporate Lab Nanyang Environment and Water Research Institute Temasek Laboratories @ NTU Engineering::Materials Vitrimers Plastic Waste Chemical depolymerization has been identified as a promising approach towards recycling of plastic waste. However, complete depolymerization may be energy intensive with complications in purification. In this work, we have demonstrated upcycling of mixed plastic waste comprising a mixture of polyester, polyamide, and polyurethane through a reprocessable vitrimer of the depolymerized oligomers. Using poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) as a model polymer, we first demonstrated partial controlled depolymerization, using glycerol as a cleaving agent, to obtain branched PET oligomers. Recovered PET (RPET) oligomer was then used as a feedstock to produce a crosslinked yet reprocessable vitrimer (vRPET) despite having a wide molecular weight distribution using a solventless melt processing approach. Crosslinking and dynamic interactions were observed through rheology and dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA). Tensile mechanical studies showed no noticeable decrease in mechanical strength over multiple repeated melt processing cycles. Consequently, we have clearly demonstrated the applicability of the above method to upcycle mixed plastic wastes into vitrimers and reprocessable composites. This work also afforded insights into a potentially viable alternative route for utilization of depolymerized plastic/mixed plastic waste into crosslinked vitrimer resins manifesting excellent mechanical strength, while remaining reprocessable/ recyclable for cyclical lifetime use. Published version 2023-10-09T05:51:33Z 2023-10-09T05:51:33Z 2023 Journal Article Ng, J. K. W., Lim, J. S. K., Gupta, N., Dong, B. X., Hu, C. P., Hu, J. & Hu, X. (2023). A facile alternative strategy of upcycling mixed plastic waste into vitrimers. Communications Chemistry, 6(1), 158-. https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s42004-023-00949-8 2399-3669 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/170949 10.1038/s42004-023-00949-8 37500812 2-s2.0-85166003176 1 6 158 en Communications Chemistry © The Author(s) 2023. Open Access. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/. application/pdf |
| spellingShingle | Engineering::Materials Vitrimers Plastic Waste Ng, Joseph Kok Wei Lim, Jacob Song Kiat Gupta, Nupur Dong, Bing Xue Hu, Chun Po Hu, Jingdan Hu, Xiao A facile alternative strategy of upcycling mixed plastic waste into vitrimers |
| title | A facile alternative strategy of upcycling mixed plastic waste into vitrimers |
| title_full | A facile alternative strategy of upcycling mixed plastic waste into vitrimers |
| title_fullStr | A facile alternative strategy of upcycling mixed plastic waste into vitrimers |
| title_full_unstemmed | A facile alternative strategy of upcycling mixed plastic waste into vitrimers |
| title_short | A facile alternative strategy of upcycling mixed plastic waste into vitrimers |
| title_sort | facile alternative strategy of upcycling mixed plastic waste into vitrimers |
| topic | Engineering::Materials Vitrimers Plastic Waste |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/170949 |
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