2025 - Sustainable Industrial Processing Summit
SIPS2025 Volume 4. Matyjaszewski Intl. Symp. / Polymers
| Editors: | F. Kongoli, R.C. Advincula, B.Z. Tang, S. Thomas |
| Publisher: | Flogen Star OUTREACH |
| Publication Year: | 2025 |
| Pages: | 208 pages |
| ISBN: | 978-1-998384-44-0 (CD) |
| ISSN: | 2291-1227 (Metals and Materials Processing in a Clean Environment Series) |
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COMPLETELY PHOTODEGRADABLE PLASTICS
Qiang Yue1; Fanling Meng1; Ben Zhong Tang2; Liang Luo1;1HUAZHONG UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, Wuhan, China; 2THE CHINESE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG, Shenzhen, China;
Type of Paper: Regular
Id Paper: 123
Topic: 62
Abstract:
The global plastic waste crisis persists as a pressing environmental challenge, with conventional degradation methods revealing fundamental technical constraints. Current industrial-scale recycling approaches suffer from downcycling effect, restricted applicability, and concomitant microplastic generation, [1,2] which underscores the urgent demand for transformative recycling paradigms that harmonize operational simplicity, economic feasibility, and minimal resource expenditure.
Sunlight-drive decomposition represents a revolutionary paradigm, which operates under ambient conditions with near-zero energy input, positioning a scalable and environmentally benign management solution. [3] However, achieving complete decomposition while maintaining essential material performance constitutes a critical technological hurdle.
we present a transformative materials design strategy as a potential solution to the problem. This design philosophy stems from our previous discovery that a polydiacetylene containing short carboxylic acid side groups undergoes complete degradation into small molecules under sunlight in either air or aqueous environments, primarily through the cleavage of its C=C and C≡C bonds in the backbone. [4] Intriguingly, the topochemical polymerization mechanism inherent to polydiacetylenes is particularly advantageous for crystalline engineering plastics with regularly aligned polymer strands. Using industrial crystalline engineering plastic polyamide 6/10 (nylon 6/10, or PA610) as a model system, our design introduces diacetylene moieties within the strands of PA610 while maintaining the commercial-grade properties of the materials in terms of mechanical properties and transparency. When exposed to sunlight, the inter-chain topochemical polymerization among adjacent diacetylene units occurs, creating a crosslinked network embedding photodegradable elements in both crosslinkers and polymer strands. The derived material then completely degrades in natural environment within 5 months.
This sunlight-responsive switching mechanism elegantly reconciles the conflicting requirements of structural robustness during service life and controlled degradability at end-of-life, establishing a new paradigm for sustainable materials engineering.