Journal
JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY
Volume 144, Issue 51, Pages 23280-23285Publisher
AMER CHEMICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1021/jacs.2c11949
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences
- United States Department of Energy [DE-AC-02-06CH11357]
- NSF [CHE-1531632]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
In this study, a chemical recycling route was developed to convert post-consumer HDPE into telechelic macromonomers suitable for circular reprocessing, providing a solution for the limited recyclability of polyolefins.
Among commercial plastics, polyolefins are the most widely produced worldwide but have limited recyclability. Here, we report a chemical recycling route for the conversion of post-consumer high-density polyethylene (HDPE) into telechelic macromonomers suitable for circular reprocessing. Unsaturation was introduced into HDPE by catalytic dehydrogenation using an Ir-POCOP catalyst without an alkene acceptor. Cross-metathesis with 2-hydroxyethyl acrylate followed by hydrogenation transformed the partially unsaturated HDPE into telechelic macromonomers. The direct repolymerization of the macromonomers gave a brittle material due to the low overall weight-average molecular weight. Aminolysis of telechelic macromonomers with a small amount of diethanolamine increased the overall functionality. The resulting macromonomers were repolymerized through transesterification to generate a polymer with comparable mechanical properties to the starting post-consumer HDPE waste. Depolymerization of the repolymerized material catalyzed by an organic base regenerated the telechelic macromonomers, thereby allowing waste polyethylene materials to enter a chemical recycling pathway.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available