The Institute for Cooperative Upcycling of Plastics (iCOUP), an Energy Frontier Research Center led by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Ames National Laboratory, has been awarded funding to continue their work advancing transformative manufacturing, focused on using discarded plastics as feedstocks for new materials and chemicals. Based on an extensive review, the DOE’s Office of Science renewed the center’s funding of $15.1 million for four years. The renewed funding was announced HERE.
“Our previous research efforts have taught us that advancing polymer upcycling requires a multidisciplinary strategy and collaborative, imaginative scientists who like to invent new methods, said Aaron Sadow, Ames Laboratory scientist and director of iCOUP. “This kind of project and our strategy is ideally suited for center-level approach. iCOUP will continue to bring interdisciplinary knowledge together to inspire new ideas for polymer upcycling.”
World-leading experts in chemistry, materials science, and physics come together from several institutions across the U.S to collaborate in the iCOUP team. In addition to Ames Lab, the center includes Argonne National Laboratory, Cornell University, University of California Santa Barbara, Northwestern University, University of South Carolina, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, University of Michigan, University of Southern California, and University of Florida. Scientists at these institutions have combined their knowledge and expertise in polymers, catalysis, materials synthesis, spectroscopy, and theory to create a research team uniquely qualified to meet the global challenge of addressing plastic waste and the sustainable use of natural resources.
iCOUP is focusing on conversions of polyolefin plastics, a type of long-chain molecule that is the basis of many consumer goods. The challenge is to be able to break these molecules controllably, either to make recycling easier, or to convert them to products such as lubricants or biodegradable surfactants. Since it was established, iCOUP scientists have made significant progress in several areas of plastics upcycling. These include:
- Catalyst development and design: A major finding in plastic upcycling began with the center’s discovery that platinum nanoparticles help convert polyolefins into lubricating base oils. By using these nanoparticles in specially designed catalysts, average chain length of product molecules can be controlled. As a result, iCOUP scientists can tailor these catalysts to design high-yield processes that convert different types of plastics into specific classes of high value products.
- Recyclable polyolefins from polyolefins: The lack of simple methods for recycling creates a major challenge for plastic sustainability. iCOUP researchers have developed a suite of polyolefins containing sparse linkers which allow chemical recycling to be accomplished more easily. While existing methods tend to degrade the quality of resulting recycled plastic, iCOUP’s recycling method maintains physical properties similar to the original materials, avoiding “downcycling,” one of the biggest pitfalls for plastics recycling.
- Expanding spectroscopic methods for materials characterization: Improving plastic upcycling processes face an unusual challenge because the polymer chains are big, flexible molecules, and their interaction with catalysts might only involve a small part of the chain. The combination of custom methods using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and high energy scattering techniques have allowed iCOUP scientists to begin to understand how polymer upcycling catalysts function and how to make them better.
- New theory and modeling methods: Theory and modeling help steer scientists toward the most promising solutions for materials and process design. But the large size of polymers, the distributions of chain lengths in polymers and products, and unusual reaction conditions make it challenging to model polymer upcycling using existing methods. iCOUP researchers have developed new theoretical frameworks by combining behavior at long and short distances and timescales, to better predict and understand polymer upcycling reactions.
“iCOUP has discovered new scientific principles that are fundamental to chemical transformations of polymers, yet we are always acutely aware of the societal and practical implications of research outcomes,” said Sadow. “In the next phase of our work we will continue to discover new scientific concepts to enable polymer upcycling and investigate their potential impact on sustainable manufacturing and plastics.”
Ames National Laboratory is a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science National Laboratory operated by Iowa State University. Ames Laboratory creates innovative materials, technologies, and energy solutions. We use our expertise, unique capabilities, and interdisciplinary collaborations to solve global problems.
Ames Laboratory is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy. The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit https://energy.gov/science.