Ganapathi Anurag, Sharma Rishi, Abdelwahab Mohamed A, Rabnawaz Muhammad
School of Packaging, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824-1223, United States.
ACS Omega. 2025 Apr 11;10(15):15172-15180. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.4c10910. eCollection 2025 Apr 22.
Postconsumer polyolefins (r-POs) are leading plastic waste contributors today. This study reports, for the first time, the compatibilization of r-POs at a 50 kilogram (kg) scale with a styrene block copolymer compatibilizer in the presence of paraffin waxes as rheology modifiers (RMs). The addition of the rheological modifier (RM) and compatibilizer enhances the melt flow indices (MFIs) and mechanical properties, respectively. One aspect of this study is to compare the effectiveness of low-cost paraffin wax to that of specialized and expensive RMs in r-POs. The mechanical and rheological properties such as the melt flow index (MFI) of r-POs were compared in the presence of two types of RMs. Next, the study explores the challenges encountered when scaling the compatibilization of r-POs in the presence of paraffin wax from a 10-g to a 50-kg scale. The mechanical properties were determined and compared for samples at different scales. The study further investigated the effect of the method used for blending paraffin wax with r-PO and its impact on the value of their MFI and mechanical properties. This at-scale validation could pave the way for the commercialization of r-POs.
消费后聚烯烃（r-POs）是当今主要的塑料废弃物来源。本研究首次报告了在50千克规模下，以苯乙烯嵌段共聚物增容剂对r-POs进行增容，并使用石蜡作为流变改性剂（RMs）。流变改性剂（RM）和增容剂的添加分别提高了熔体流动指数（MFIs）和机械性能。本研究的一个方面是比较低成本石蜡与r-POs中专用且昂贵的流变改性剂的有效性。在两种类型的流变改性剂存在的情况下，比较了r-POs的机械性能和流变性能，如熔体流动指数（MFI）。接下来，该研究探讨了在石蜡存在下将r-POs的增容从10克规模扩大到50千克规模时遇到的挑战。测定并比较了不同规模样品的机械性能。该研究进一步研究了将石蜡与r-PO混合的方法及其对熔体流动指数（MFI）值和机械性能的影响。这种大规模验证可为r-POs的商业化铺平道路。
