Abstract
Nylon is a high-strength polyamide widely used in automotive, textiles, packaging, etc. However, its durability makes nylon waste difficult to manage, with recycling limited to mechanical grinding to make fillers. Here, we report a catalytic glycolysis approach to deconstruct Nylon 6 into controlled-length oligomers, enabling upcycling into value-added materials. A low-molecular-weight oligomer (Mn = 1.8 kg/mol) was repolymerized with diepoxy-terminated poly(bisphenol A-co-epichlorohydrin) via mechanochemistry to create a high-performance adhesive. This copolymer achieves lap shear strengths over 22 MPa on steel and bonds steel to carbon fiber composites, nearly tripling the performance of commercial adhesives even at 90°C. Thermomechanical analyses show that the adhesive retains thermal stability similar to nylon 6 but melts at lower temperatures, allowing easier processing. The material can be reprocessed and reused without significant performance loss. This study demonstrates a strategy to convert nylon 6 waste into valuable materials, offering a sustainable path for difficult-to-recycle plastics.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 102908 |
| Journal | Cell Reports Physical Science |
| Volume | 6 |
| Issue number | 11 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Nov 19 2025 |
Funding
This research was supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences and Engineering Division . Mechanochemistry study was supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) through award number DE-EE0009177 provided to the University of Tennessee - Oak Ridge Innovation Institute . We thank Dr. Vipin Kumar for providing the low-melting poly(aryletherketone)-carbon fiber composites for adhesion testing. 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.
Keywords
- Nylon waste
- adhesive
- circularity
- deconstruction
- glycolysis
- nylon
- nylon oligomers
- recycling
- repurposing
- upcycling
- value-added materials