Toward an Environmental Sustainability of the Crosslinked Plastics via Ultrasonic Extrusion

这笔赠款将使一个新的科学为基础的技术的探索，一个新的连续过程，使交联聚乙烯，材料广泛使用的产品，如塑料袋，热水和冷水管，电线和电缆绝缘，储罐和许多注塑件的再加工。大多数交联材料不能再加工，因为赋予它们如此有吸引力的性质的网络分子结构在不破坏聚合物的情况下很难解交联。事实上，今天大多数这些废弃的产品只是燃烧其有限的卡路里值。这些新的超声波辅助挤出工艺有可能生产出足够质量和完整性的材料，使其能够再加工成新产品。该研究小组将研究超声波挤出和制造，以及解交联聚乙烯材料的结构和性能，并将建立工艺模型和确定机制，以便预测超声波加工的最佳条件和扩大工艺规模。如果成功，该研究的结果将导致从废弃的交联聚乙烯制造用于许多相同应用的新材料和产品。其社会影响将是大大减少垃圾填埋场的固体废物。这些交联聚乙烯的超声波处理的理论模型和计算机模拟将有助于优化的过程和新的超声波挤出机的设计。该技术还可以适用于聚乙烯以外的更广泛的交联聚合物。

This grant will enable the exploration of a new science-based technology for a novel continuous process enabling the reprocessing of crosslinked polyethylene, a material used extensively today in products such as plastic bags, hot and cold water pipes, wire and cable insulation, storage tanks and many injection molded parts. Most crosslinked materials cannot be reprocessed because the network molecular structure that gives them such attractive properties is very difficult to decrosslink without destroying the polymer. In fact, today most of these discarded products are simply burned for their limited caloric value. These novel ultrasonically aided extrusion processes have the potential to produce material of sufficient quality and integrity to enable it to be reprocessed into new products. The research team will study the ultrasonic extrusion and fabrication, as well as the structure and properties of the decrosslinked polyethylene materials and will establish the process models and identify the mechanisms allowing for the prediction of the optimal conditions of ultrasonic processing and scale up of the process.If successful, the results of this research will lead to the manufacture of new materials and products from waste crosslinked polyethylenes for use in many of the same applications. The societal impact would be a significant solid waste reduction in landfills. The theoretical modeling and computer simulations of the ultrasonic treatment of these crosslinked polyethylenes will contribute to the optimization of the process and design of new ultrasonic extruders. The technology could also be applicable to a broader class of crosslinked polymers beyond polyethylene.