Driven by the huge burden on the environment, scientists are constantly looking for new ways to make plastic materials to make them easier to recycle. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology now claim a major breakthrough in this area. By modifying the composition of a common plastic, the team produced a version of the same strength, which is easier to decompose after use, and can be rebuilt and recycled.
This work was carried out by chemistry researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and focused on a major type of plastic called thermoset plastics. Separated from the thermoplastics that make up plastic bags and food packaging paper, thermosetting plastics include materials such as epoxy resin, polyurethane, and rubber, and are often used in auto parts and electrical appliances.
Thermoset plastics are manufactured slightly differently from thermoplastics, which means they are not so easy to recycle. This is because thermoplastics can melt into liquids and reshape them into new shapes, but the bonds inside thermosets are difficult to break down, which means they often burn up under heating rather than return to liquid form.
"Once they are set to a given shape, they will maintain that shape throughout their lives," he said. "There is usually no easy way to recycle them."
The team may have found a way to solve this dilemma by intervening in the material formation stage. It is based on some of its early work on degradable polymers, in which silyl ether monomers are added to break down the bonds in the material.
After applying this method to their plastic research, the scientists discovered that the experiment was successful by adding silyl ether monomers to the liquid precursor that forms a thermoplastic called polydicyclopentadiene (pDCPD) In a solution with a concentration of between 7.5% and 10%, the team found that it not only retains the original mechanical strength, but also can be easily reduced to powder by exposure to fluoride ions after use.
This means that scientists can now make the pDCPD material degradable without harming its useful mechanical properties. Then, by dissolving the powder in a precursor solution, the team was able to use it to form a new pDCPD thermoset material. This material is commonly used for truck and bus body panels, but importantly, the team believes that this method can also be used for other types of thermoset materials.
"This work reveals a basic design principle that we believe is universal for any thermoset material with this basic structure," said Jeremiah Johnson, professor of chemistry at MIT and the senior author of the study.
The research was published in the journal Nature.
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