Influence of Carboxylic Acid Structure on the Kinetics of Polyurethane Foam Acidolysis to Recycled Polyol.

Closed-loop recycling of plastics is needed to bridge the gap between the material demands imposed by a growing global population and the depletion of nonrenewable petroleum feedstocks. Here, we examine chemical recycling of polyurethane foams (PUFs), the sixth most produced polymer in the world, through PUF acidolysis via dicarboxylic acids (DCAs) to release recyclable polyols. Acidolysis enables recycling of the polyol component of PUFs to high-quality materials, and while the influence of DCA structure on recycled PUF quality has been reported, there are no reports that examine the influence of DCA structure on the kinetics of polyol release.

Vapor-Phase Dicarboxylic Acids and Anhydrides Drive Depolymerization of Polyurethanes.

Polyurethane (PU) is the sixth most used plastic in the world. Because many PU derived materials are thermosets and the monomers are valuable, chemical recycling to recover the polyol component is the most viable pathway to utilizing postconsumer PU waste in a closed-loop fashion. Acidolysis is an effective method to recover polyol from PU waste.

Polyurethane Foam Chemical Recycling: Fast Acidolysis with Maleic Acid and Full Recovery of Polyol.

Chemical recycling of polyurethane (PU) waste is essential to displace the need for virgin polyol production and enable sustainable PU production. Currently, less than 20% of PU waste is downcycled through rebinding to lower value products than the original PU. Chemical recycling of PU waste often requires significant input of materials like solvents and slow reaction rates.

Comparison of bond scission sequence of methanol on tungsten monocarbide and Pt-modified tungsten monocarbide.

The ability to control the bond scission sequence of O-H, C-H, and C-O bonds is of critical importance in the effective utilization of oxygenate molecules, such as in reforming reactions and in alcohol fuel cells. In the current study, we use methanol as a probe molecule to demonstrate the possibility to control the decomposition pathways by supporting monolayer coverage of Pt on a tungsten monocarbide (WC) surface. Density functional theory (DFT) results reveal that on the WC and Pt/WC surfaces CH3OH decomposes via O-H bond scission to form the methoxy (*CH3 O) intermediate.