STTR Phase I: Advanced compatibilization for mixed plastic recycling

STTR 第一阶段：混合塑料回收的高级相容性

• 批准号: 2136645
• 负责人: Ting-Wei Lin
• 金额: $ 25.6万
• 依托单位: INTERMIX PERFORMANCE MATERIALS, INC.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-09-15 至 2024-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2136645&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: STTR; Phase; Advanced; compatibilization; mixed

The broader impact of this Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project is to promote increased recycling and to enable the upcycling of two of the most common polymers found in mixed waste streams: polyethylene (PE) and isotactic polypropylene (iPP). While plastic recycling can assist in mitigating the vast and continuously growing volume of plastic waste, mixed plastic streams—notably those with PE and iPP—introduce many challenges. These polymers are immiscible but of similar density, making them unsuitable for simple melt-blending yet difficult to separate. Although additives have been developed to overcome the immiscibility issue, these additives typically need to be added at high loadings and produce resins with poor mechanical properties. This project focuses on the development of advanced additives (compatibilizers) that can be introduced in low concentrations to produce PE/iPP resins with superior durability, ductility, and industrial utility that rivals or outperforms homopolymers. Such a technology has the potential to bring superior efficiency to the mixed recycling process, advancing the field toward a more circular plastics economy. By delivering high-value products from waste streams, widespread adoption of this technology would drive improvements in plastic waste collection, recycling, and re-manufacturing, supporting jobs in these and adjacent fields.This project involves the creation of non-reactive, multi-graft copolymers capable of supporting high-quality iPP/PE blends with superior tensile strength characteristics, impact resistance, and rigidity compared to current resins. The proposed approach leverages interlocked molecular entanglements and co-crystallization to provide stronger adhesion to iPP and PE. This technology seeks capability of up to 30% iPP contamination in PE using as little as 1 wt% additive to generate high-value blended materials. Phase I development will involve: 1) optimization of polyethylene-graft-iPP copolymer compatibilization additives, 2) scale-up of optimized polyethylene-graft-iPP copolymers, 3) testing of larger scale batches for end polymer qualities, and 4) testing of compatibilizers with combinations of different grades of actual post-consumer plastic waste. The technology may contribute to an enhanced understanding of how specific copolymer architectures influence compatibilization efficiency, while also meeting the need for technologies to support compatibilization of PE and iPP for blended recycling applications.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

这个小型企业创新研究阶段I项目的更广泛的影响是促进回收增加，并能够升级混合废物流中发现的两种最常见的聚合物：聚乙烯（PE）（PE）和同型聚丙烯（IPP）。尽管塑料回收可以帮助减轻庞大而持续不断增长的塑料废物，但混合的塑料溪流（尤其是那些患有PE和IPP的塑料）引起了许多挑战。这些聚合物尽管已经开发出来克服了不混溶性问题，但通常需要在高负载下添加这些添加剂，并生产具有较差机械性能的树脂。该项目着重于低浓度的高级添加剂（兼容能力）的开发，以生产具有较高耐用性，延展性和工业用途的PE/IPP树脂，从而提高或胜过均聚物。这样的技术有可能为混合的回收过程带来卓越的效率，从而使该领域朝着更循环的塑料经济发展。通过从废物流中传递高价值产品，采用这项技术的宽度将推动塑料废物收集，回收和重新制造的改进，在这些和相邻领域的支持工作。该项目涉及非反应性，多种型物质的共同组合能够支持高级IPP/PEE综合的较高效果，并具有较高的电阻率和刺激性，并影响了刺激性，并影响了刺激性的效果，并具有刺激性的影响。所提出的方法利用了互锁的分子纠缠和共结晶来对IPP和PE提供强烈的遵守。该技术寻求PE中最多30％IPP污染的能力，使用低1 wt％的添加剂来生成高价值混合材料。第一阶段的开发将涉及：1）优化聚乙烯 - 植物-IPP共聚物兼容性添加剂，2）对优化的聚乙烯 - 摩擦-IPP共聚物的扩大，3）3）测试较大规模批次的最终聚合物质量的测试，以及4）4）兼容能力的兼容能力以及不同实际毕业生的实际塑料后塑料后塑料量。该技术可能有助于加强对特定共聚物架构如何影响兼容性效率的理解，同时还满足了支持PE和IPP进行混合回收应用的技术的需求。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并通过使用该基金会的知识分子优点和广泛的影响来评估NSF的法定任务，并被认为是珍贵的支持。