Subcritical CO2-Based Microcellular Extrusion of Environmentally Benign Plastics

环保塑料的亚临界 CO2 微孔挤出

• 批准号: 0620835
• 负责人: Vipin Kumar
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Washington
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2006
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2006-09-15 至 2010-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0620835&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Subcritical; CO2; Based; Microcellular; Extrusion

This NSF funded project is aimed at developing a sub-critical CO2 based microcellular extrusion process for environmentally benign plastics. The envisioned process will use low pressure CO2 as a blowing agent, providing a substitute for harmful chemical blowing agents and volatile gases now in use in manufacture of polymer foams. The research will focus on two environmentally benign plastics: recycled polyethylene terepthalate (PET) and naturally derived Polylactic Acid (PLA). These two polymer systems are chosen for their immediate impact on the society. Recycled PET is a candidate to replace PVC in many housing, industrial construction, and packaging applications. PLA is biodegradable and produced from annually renewable resources. The research is based on a novel idea of pre-saturating polymer pellets with CO2 as a means to deliver foaming agents to the extrusion process. This idea has two significant benefits: First, it allows low gas saturation pressure in the extrusion process such that conventional extrusion equipment can be used; second, it activates nucleating sites in the saturation step and thus the bubble nucleation and bubble growth can be decoupled for easier process control. The research cuts across many disciplines such as mechanical engineering, material science, chemical engineering, and polymer physics. It will provide excellent training opportunities for both graduate and undergraduate students to gain interdisciplinary knowledge. The new technology resulted from this research will eliminate pollution at the source, preserve resources for a sustainable environment, and create new job opportunities that will benefit the society at large.

这个由NSF资助的项目旨在开发一种用于环保塑料的亚临界CO2微孔挤出工艺。所设想的工艺将使用低压CO2作为发泡剂，为目前用于制造聚合物泡沫的有害化学发泡剂和挥发性气体提供替代品。该研究将重点关注两种环保塑料：回收的聚对苯二甲酸乙二醇酯（PET）和天然衍生的聚乳酸（PLA）。选择这两种聚合物系统是因为它们对社会的直接影响。聚酯是一个候选人，以取代PVC在许多住房，工业建筑和包装应用。PLA是可生物降解的，由每年可再生的资源生产。这项研究是基于一个新的想法，预饱和的聚合物颗粒与二氧化碳作为一种手段，提供发泡剂的挤出过程。该想法具有两个显著的益处：首先，其允许在挤出过程中的低气体饱和压力，使得可以使用常规挤出设备;其次，其在饱和步骤中激活成核位点，并且因此气泡成核和气泡生长可以解耦，以更容易地进行过程控制。该研究跨越许多学科，如机械工程，材料科学，化学工程和聚合物物理。它将为研究生和本科生提供极好的培训机会，以获得跨学科的知识。这项研究产生的新技术将从源头上消除污染，保护资源以实现可持续发展的环境，并创造新的就业机会，造福整个社会。