Assadi M Hussein N, Doustkhah Esmail
RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science (CEMS), 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan.
School of Materials Science and Engineering, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales 2052, Australia.
ACS Eng Au. 2023 Sep 15;3(5):285-291. doi: 10.1021/acsengineeringau.3c00021. eCollection 2023 Oct 18.
The accumulation of waste plastics poses a significant environmental challenge, leading to persistent pollution in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. A practical approach to address this issue involves the transformation of postconsumer waste plastics into industrially valuable products. This study focuses on an example of harnessing the carbon content in these polymers for carbon-demanding industrial processes, thereby reducing waste plastics from the environment and alleviating the demand for mined carbon resources. Employing quantum simulations, we examine the viability of polychloroprene as a carburizing agent in the steelmaking process. Our simulations reveal that polychloroprene exhibits excellent carbon diffusivity in molten iron, with a theoretical diffusion coefficient of 8.983 × 10cm s. This value competes favorably with that of metallurgical coke and surpasses the carbon diffusivity of other polymers, such as polycarbonate, polyurethane, and polysulfide. Additionally, our findings demonstrate that the chlorine content in polychloroprene does not permeate into molten iron but instead remains confined to the molten iron and slag interface.
废弃塑料的积累对环境构成了重大挑战，导致陆地和水生生态系统中持续存在污染。解决这一问题的一个切实可行的方法是将消费后废弃塑料转化为具有工业价值的产品。本研究聚焦于一个利用这些聚合物中的碳含量用于高碳需求工业过程的例子，从而减少环境中的废弃塑料，并减轻对开采碳资源的需求。通过量子模拟，我们研究了聚氯丁二烯在炼钢过程中作为渗碳剂的可行性。我们的模拟结果表明，聚氯丁二烯在铁水中表现出优异的碳扩散率，理论扩散系数为8.983×10cm²/s。该值与冶金焦的扩散系数相比具有优势，并且超过了其他聚合物如聚碳酸酯、聚氨酯和聚硫化物的碳扩散率。此外，我们的研究结果表明，聚氯丁二烯中的氯含量不会渗透到铁水中，而是保留在铁水和炉渣界面处。
