Data for Threading-the-Needle: Compatibilization of HDPE/iPP blends with butadiene-derived polyolefin block copolymers
2023-07-31T14:32:36Z
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11-1-2021
11-1-2022
11-1-2022
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1-24-2023
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Data for Threading-the-Needle: Compatibilization of HDPE/iPP blends with butadiene-derived polyolefin block copolymers
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2023-07-31T14:32:36Z
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Bates, Frank S
bates001@umn.edu
bates001@umn.edu
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Abstract
Management of the plastic industry is a momentous challenge, one that pits enormous societal benefits against an accumulating reservoir of nearly indestructible waste. A promising strategy for recycling polyethylene (PE) and isotactic polypropylene (iPP), constituting roughly half the plastic produced annually worldwide, is melt blending for reformulation into useful products. Unfortunately, such blends are generally brittle and useless due to phase separation and mechanically weak domain interfaces. Recent studies have shown that addition of small amounts of semicrystalline PE-iPP block copolymers (ca. 1 wt%) to mixtures of these polyolefns results in ductility comparable to the pure materials. However, current methods for producing such additives rely on expensive reagents, prohibitively impacting the cost of recycling these inexpensive commodity plastics. Here, we describe an alternative strategy that exploits anionic polymerization of butadiene into block copolymers, with subsequent catalytic hydrogenation, yielding E and X blocks that are individually melt miscible with PE and iPP, where E and X are poly(ethylene-ran-ethylethylene) random copolymers with 6% and 90% ethylethylene repeat units, respectively. Cooling melt blended mixtures of PE and iPP containing 1 wt% of the triblock copolymer EXE of appropriate molecular weight, results in mechanical properties competitive with the component plastics. Blend toughness is obtained through interfacial topological entanglements of the amorphous X polymer and semicrystalline iPP, along with anchoring of the E blocks through cocrystallization with the PE homopolymer. Significantly, EXE can be inexpensively produced using currently practiced industrial scale polymerization methods, offering a practical approach to recycling the world’s top two plastics.
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The data folder contains all data of the figures in the article and SI appendix, including nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), size exclusion chromatography (SEC), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), rheology, tensile testing, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) data. See the readme.txt file for further details.
Funding Information
Funding for this work was provided by the Center for Sustainable Polymers, a NSF-supported Center for Chemical Innovation (CHE- 1901635). Parts of the work were carried out in the Characterization Facility, University of Minnesota, which receives partial support from the NSF through the MRSEC (Award Number DMR-2011401) and the NNCI (Award Number ECCS- 2025124) programs.
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https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2301352120
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Funding information
Funding for this work was provided by the Center for Sustainable Polymers, a NSF-supported Center for Chemical Innovation (CHE- 1901635). Parts of the work were carried out in the Characterization Facility, University of Minnesota, which receives partial support from the NSF through the MRSEC (Award Number DMR-2011401) and the NNCI (Award Number ECCS- 2025124) programs.
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