Bulletin of the American Physical Society
APS March Meeting 2022
Volume 67, Number 3
Monday–Friday, March 14–18, 2022; Chicago
Session A42: Sustainable Polymers: Fundamental Properties, Applications, and Design for End-of-LifeInvited Live Streamed
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Sponsoring Units: DPOLY Chair: Megan Robertson, University of Houston Room: McCormick Place W-375A |
Monday, March 14, 2022 8:00AM - 8:36AM |
A42.00001: Multiblock Copolymers for Compatibilizing and Recycling PET and PE Mixed Waste Streams Invited Speaker: Christopher J Ellison Poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) and polyethylene (PE) are two of the most prevalent plastics worldwide and they constitute a major portion of plastic waste. Unfortunately, it is difficult to directly recycle most plastic items, especially packaging products like multi-layer films that are composed of several immiscible polymers (e.g. PE and PET), since melt reprocessing of multi-component systems yields immiscible blends with poor mechanical properties. Effective compatibilizers can enhance blend component interfacial adhesion and improve mechanical properties of the recycled blends. In this study, we successfully developed PET-PE multiblock copolymer (MBCP) compatibilizers, which can be used as both adhesive layers in-between PET/PE multilayer films and compatibilizers for recycling PET and PE mixed waste streams. We systematically investigated the role of molecular architecture on compatibilization effects and transport phenomena. Results from three different compatibilizers, PET-PE MBCPs with random and alternating block sequencing, and PE-PET-PE triblock copolymer, with comparable total molar mass will be discussed. |
Monday, March 14, 2022 8:36AM - 9:12AM |
A42.00002: Characterization of Degraded and Model Post-Consumer Resins to Support Emerging Metrology Needs in Materials Sustainability and End of Life Concerns Invited Speaker: Sara Orski To support the development of sustainable polymers and processing methodologies, accurate measurements and quantitative models of polymer structure-property-performance relationships are critically needed to evaluate and compare next-generation materials. This involves understanding the impacts of molar mass, chemical composition, and architectural distributions of complex polymers to optimize the design of compatibilizers for mechanical recycling, additives for chemical recycling, and degradation lifetimes for polymers in the environment. This talk will highlight efforts to make systematically varied families of model polyolefin compatibilizers and the subsequent characterization of branching content and chain conformation via high temperature size exclusion chromatography. With this information, further characterization of these materials in bulk systems can be studied and results correlated to homogeneous, well characterized materials. Furthermore, for materials designed to degrade, where recovery and recycling is not practical, understanding environmental degradation kinetics on polymer topology and chemistry are crucial to material design. This presentation will also highlight efforts in our laboratory to study environmental aging of polyolefins with systematic study of chemical, molecular, and thermal properties with material depth to develop improved degradation models as benchmarks for current marine debris. This research can be used to aid in sampling degraded plastic debris and with alternate techniques of identification, quantitative degradation measurements, and (ultimately) information to develop predictive quantitative models of polymer degradation pathways and kinetics in specific ecosystems. |
Monday, March 14, 2022 9:12AM - 9:48AM |
A42.00003: Molecular engineering in four dimensions: a mechanistic approach to reprocessable elastomers Invited Speaker: Julia A Kalow In dynamic covalent polymer networks known as vitrimers, the topology is reconfigured through associative exchange reactions. These materials hold promise as repairable and recyclable thermosets and elastomers. The Kalow Lab combines physical organic approaches and mechanical characterization to interrogate the relationship between the molecular exchange chemistry and flow in reprocessable elastomers. These studies are enabled by the use of crosslinks that exchange via a catalyst-free conjugate addition/elimination pathway. We find that stiffness and stress relaxation rate can be decoupled and independently modulated by synthetically tuning the cross-linker and prepolymer backbone, respectively. Our studies reveal the importance of internal catalysis in accelerating exchange reactions, which has inspired our design of switchable cross-linkers. |
Monday, March 14, 2022 9:48AM - 10:24AM |
A42.00004: Plastics Recycling, Upcycling, and Redesign in the BOTTLE Consortium Invited Speaker: Katrina Knauer Bio-Optimized Technologies to keep Thermoplastics out of Landfills and the Environment (BOTTLEā¢) is a U.S. Department of Energy multi-organization consortium focused on developing new chemical upcycling strategies for today's plastics and redesigning tomorrow's plastics to be recyclable-by-design. This talk will introduce the BOTTLE Consortium and present several research highlights from our efforts to date including: 1) Catalytic hydrogenation of polyolefins; 2) Enzymatic hydrolysis of PET; 3) Upcycling PET monomers into new high-performance thermosets; 4) Circular, biodegradable Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs). Techno-economic analysis, life cycle assessment, and supply chain modeling will also be highlighted as critical tools to ultimately facilitate the development of economical and sustainable approaches for recycling and redesigning plastics. |
Monday, March 14, 2022 10:24AM - 11:00AM |
A42.00005: NEXT GENERATION 3D PRINTING RESINS DERIVED FROM RENEWABLE RESOURCES Invited Speaker: Joe Stanzione Vinyl ester resins (VERs) are used to produce polymeric materials for a variety of commercial and military applications due to their relatively high strengths, moduli, thermal stabilities, and chemical resistances. Most commercially available VERs are petroleum-based and are typically cured into polymeric materials via traditional manufacturing techniques, such as resin transfer molding, compression molding, and thermal curing. Renewable, bio-based sources have been identified as more environmentally sustainable, longer-term solutions to popular platform chemicals derived from petroleum. In an effort to move towards sustainability, bio-based feedstocks have become major sources of interest for the development of polymers and composites. To achieve similar properties to incumbent VERs, bio-based resins need to possess intrinsic molecular characteristics (i.e., a balance between aromatic and aliphatic contents assembled in strategic methods) to impart favorable thermal, viscoelastic, and mechanical properties. Additionally, additive manufacturing (AM), more commonly known as 3D printing, has gained significant traction as a favorable manufacturing technique over traditional methods due to the ability to create customizable parts on demand with complex geometries. One method of AM, vat photopolymerization (VPP), is a technique that utilizes photocurable liquid resins to create a customizable part layer by layer. Such liquid resins must have a low viscosity and the ability to be cured via light in order to be viable for VPP. |
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