3744101

Modeling dynamic crosslinking to create reprocessable and compatibilized immiscible thermoplastic mixtures

Date
August 22, 2022

Upcycling incompatible mixed plastics waste presents arguably the greatest challenge in tackling the current plastics problem, but each of the existing solutions faces its own challenges and no effective closed-loop solution has emerged. Recent experiments by our collaborators show that specifically designed universal dynamical crosslinkers (UDCs) can reactivate immiscible mixed plastic "dead" chains, and dynamically compatibilize them. We present simulations results on incompatible blends which show that such crosslinking creates "living" grafted multiblock copolymers (gMBCPs) which greatly helps with compatibilization. The competing forces in these situations and how they help with property improvements will also be considered.

Presenter


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