Institute for Cooperative Upcycling of Plastics News

iCOUP Deputy Director elected as AAAS Fellow

Massimiliano “Max” Delferro, iCOUP deputy director and Argonne National Laboratory scientist, was elected as a 2024 AAAS Fellow.

ICOUP Postdoc Sam Hunt featured in Argonne Science 101

Postdoc researcher Sam Hunt, who is supported by the Institute for Cooperative Upcycling of Plastics (iCOUP) is featured in one of Argonne National Laboratory's Science 101 videos discussing circular economy.

Aaron Sadow awarded the David C. Henderson Chair in Chemistry at Iowa State University

Aaron Sadow, professor of chemistry at Iowa State University and scientist at Ames National Laboratory was recently awarded the David C. Henderson Chair in Chemistry.

iCOUP Welcomes New Partners

Three professors have recently joined our iCOUP EFRC research team. Their expertise will synergistically combine with existing iCOUP research projects to develop new ways to upcycle discarded plastics.

iCoup Deputy Director featured in Chicago Tribune

Massimiliano Delferro, deputy director of iCOUP and scientist at Argonne National Laboratory, was featured in an article published in the Chicago Tribune.

High interest for iCOUP research on polyolefins to alkylaromatics

The iCOUP paper, "Bifunctional tandem catalytic upcycling of polyethylene to surfactant-range alkylaromatics," published in the journal Chem, has ten mentions across three different URLs.

Our plastic waste can be used as raw material for detergents, thanks to an improved catalytic method

But, for researchers at UC Santa Barbara, one person’s single-use packaging is another person’s useful raw material. In a paper published in the journal Chem, they have reimagined the value of single-use plastics, with improvements to an innovative process that can turn polyolefins, the most common type of polymer in single-use packaging, into valuable alkylaromatics — molecules that underlie surfactants, the active components of detergents and other useful chemicals.

Argonne finds a way to recycle 'plastic No. 2' not just two or three times but infinitely

Chemists at Argonne National Laboratory in DuPage County have worked out a new way to recycle certain plastics infinitely, a discovery that could change the way we recycle containers like those used for milk and laundry detergents.

Four Iowa State University students have been named 2023 Goldwater Scholars

The prestigious Goldwater Scholarship is the premier undergraduate scholarship in mathematics, natural sciences and engineering in the United States. Among the winners is Daniel Howell, who works with polymer upcycling at iCOUP.

What can we do about all the plastic waste?

A collaborative effort led by scientists at Ames and Argonne national laboratories is working to keep plastic out of landfills by finding ways to turn it into valuable products.