Dynamic polymer network points the way to truly recyclable plastics

Jehanno, Coralie; Sardon, Haritz

doi:10.1038/d41586-019-01209-3

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22 April 2019

Dynamic polymer network points the way to truly recyclable plastics

Crosslinked polymer networks known as thermoset plastics have many applications, but can’t be reshaped or recycled. A thermoset with reorganizable crosslinks retains its useful properties, but has recyclability built in.

Coralie Jehanno⁰ &
Haritz Sardon¹

Coralie Jehanno
1. Coralie Jehanno is at POLYMAT, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, Joxe Mari Korta Center, 20018 Donostia-San Sebastian, Spain.
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Haritz Sardon
1. Haritz Sardon is at POLYMAT, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, Joxe Mari Korta Center, 20018 Donostia-San Sebastian, Spain.
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The fact that most currently used plastics cannot be easily recycled has produced severe environmental problems, caused considerable losses to the global economy and depleted finite natural resources¹^,². Of the most widely used plastics today, thermosets are of great interest for high-performance applications, but are particularly impractical for recycling because they cannot be reprocessed using heat or solvents. Writing in Nature Chemistry, Christensen et al.³ report thermosets formed using covalent links known as diketoenamines, which can be reorganized within the material’s polymer network. Remarkably, the diketoenamines allow the plastics to be recycled in an energy-efficient process to regenerate pristine monomers, which can then be used to make thermosets that are almost identical to the original material.

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Nature 568, 467-468 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-01209-3

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