Abstract
Plastic represents an essential material in our society; however, a major imbalance between their high production and end-of-life management is leading to unrecovered energy, economic hardship, and a high carbon footprint. The adoption of plastic recycling has been limited, mainly due to the difficulty of recycling mixed plastics. Here, we report a versatile organocatalyst for selective glycolysis of diverse consumer plastics and their mixed waste streams into valuable chemicals. The developed organocatalyst selectively deconstructs condensation polymers at a specific temperature, and additives or other polymers such as polyolefin or cellulose can be readily separated from the mixed plastics, providing a chemical recycling path for many existing mixed plastics today. The Life Cycle Assessment indicates that the production of various condensation polymers from the deconstructed monomers will result in a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and energy input, opening a new paradigm of plastic circularity toward a net-zero carbon society.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 3360-3368 |
| Number of pages | 9 |
| Journal | Materials Horizons |
| Volume | 10 |
| Issue number | 9 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jul 24 2023 |
Funding
This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the US Department of Energy (DOE). The US government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the US government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for US government purposes. DOE will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan ( http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-publicaccess-plan ). This research was supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences and Engineering Division. MALDI-TOF MS and DFT simulations were conducted at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS), which is a US Department of Energy, Office of Science User Facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. A portion of this research used resources at the Spallation Neutron Source, as appropriate, a DOE Office of Science User Facility operated by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. We thank Mr Jackie Zheng on assisting GPC measurements, and Dr Chao Guan for assisting DSC measurements. This research was supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences and Engineering Division. MALDI-TOF MS and DFT simulations were conducted at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS), which is a US Department of Energy, Office of Science User Facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. A portion of this research used resources at the Spallation Neutron Source, as appropriate, a DOE Office of Science User Facility operated by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. We thank Mr Jackie Zheng on assisting GPC measurements, and Dr Chao Guan for assisting DSC measurements.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| U.S. Department of Energy | |
| Office of Science | |
| Basic Energy Sciences | |
| Oak Ridge National Laboratory | |
| Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering |
