Transforming Used Plastics into Functional Materials

Synthesis of functionalized HDPE.

Scientific Achievement

Chemical upcycling of plastic waste provides new functional materials with tunable thermal and mechanical properties.

Significance and Impact

Modular thermal and mechanical properties of polar functional polyolefins synthesized from dehydrogenated HDPE derived from untreated plastic waste.

Next generation polymeric materials sourced from waste plastics require predictable structure-property relationships linking chemical functionality to desired applications. Catalytic dehydrogenation enables one-pot synthesis of unsaturated polyolefins, that can readily be transformed into tunable functional materials.

Research Details

  • Dehydrogenated high-density polyethylene (deHDPE) was synthesized from discarded post-consumer plastic via acceptor-less Ir-pincer-catalyzed non-oxidative dehydrogenation
  • Tunable functionalization of deHDPE by acid-catalyzed hydroamination and hydroalkoxylation
  • Thermo-, rheological-, and mechanical-analysis  of polar functional polymers reveal structure-property relationship

Hunt, S. B. and Delferro, M. D. ACS Appl. Polym. Mater. 2024, 6, 8727-8732. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsapm.4c01699

iCOUP, an EFRC Supported by Basic Energy Sciences

Work was performed at Argonne National Lab