Mieda Shunsuke
Platform Laboratory for Science & Technology, Asahi Kasei Corporation, 2-1 Samejima, Fuji, Shizuoka 416-8501, Japan.
ACS Omega. 2025 Feb 4;10(6):5973-5980. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.4c09953. eCollection 2025 Feb 18.
A chemical recycling process that reduces polymers to their raw materials plays a crucial role in circular economy. To contribute to chemical recycling, this study proposes a system that simulates the process of depolymerization from polymer-to-monomer using reactive molecular dynamics (MD). Two MD methods, Reax force field (ReaxFF) and neural network potential (NNP), were employed to simulate the depolymerization of a polystyrene model. We validated the simulation accuracies by comparing monomer yields and decomposition products with experimental results. The results showed that NNP-MD accurately replicated the degradation and redecomposition processes and achieved consistency with the experimental data at various temperatures. ReaxFF-MD, however, was less able to represent the depolymerization process. We conclude that NNP-MD is capable of simulating polymer depolymerization results that are consistent with experimental observations. These results contribute to the development of methods for efficient chemical recycling and the broader realization of a circular economy.
一种将聚合物还原为其原材料的化学回收过程在循环经济中起着至关重要的作用。为了推动化学回收,本研究提出了一种使用反应分子动力学(MD)模拟从聚合物到单体解聚过程的系统。采用了两种MD方法,即反应力场(ReaxFF)和神经网络势(NNP)来模拟聚苯乙烯模型的解聚。我们通过将单体产率和分解产物与实验结果进行比较来验证模拟精度。结果表明,NNP-MD准确地复制了降解和再分解过程,并在不同温度下与实验数据达成了一致。然而,ReaxFF-MD较难呈现解聚过程。我们得出结论,NNP-MD能够模拟与实验观察结果一致的聚合物解聚结果。这些结果有助于高效化学回收方法的开发以及循环经济的更广泛实现。