Castro Jordan, Westworth Xavier, Shrestha Roman, Yokoyama Kosuke, Guan Zhibin
Department of Chemistry, University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA, 92697, USA.
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA, 92697, USA.
Adv Mater. 2024 Aug;36(32):e2406203. doi: 10.1002/adma.202406203. Epub 2024 Jun 16.
Creating a sustainable economy for plastics demands the exploration of new strategies for efficient management of mixed plastic waste. The inherent incompatibility of different plastics poses a major challenge in plastic mechanical recycling, resulting in phase-separated materials with inferior mechanical properties. Here, this study presents a robust and efficient dynamic crosslinking chemistry that effectively compatibilizes mixed plastics. Composed of aromatic sulfonyl azides, the dynamic crosslinker shows high thermal stability and generates singlet nitrene species in situ during solvent-free melt-extrusion, effectively promoting C─H insertion across diverse plastics. This new method demonstrates successful compatibilization of binary polymer blends and model mixed plastics, enhancing mechanical performance and improving phase morphology. It holds promise for managing mixed plastic waste, supporting a more sustainable lifecycle for plastics.
为塑料创造可持续经济需要探索有效管理混合塑料废物的新策略。不同塑料固有的不相容性在塑料机械回收中构成了重大挑战，导致相分离材料的机械性能较差。在此，本研究提出了一种强大而有效的动态交联化学方法，可有效使混合塑料相容。这种动态交联剂由芳基磺酰叠氮组成，具有高热稳定性，并在无溶剂熔融挤出过程中原位生成单线态氮烯物种，有效促进了不同塑料之间的C─H插入。这种新方法成功地使二元聚合物共混物和模型混合塑料相容，提高了机械性能并改善了相形态。它有望用于管理混合塑料废物，为塑料支持更可持续的生命周期。
