To address the increasing disposal of large-scale thermoset structures such as wind turbine blades in landfills, we seek to impart thermoset materials with end-of-life recycling or upcycling strategies. Frontal copolymerization of dicyclopentadiene and a cleavable cyclic olefin is explored as an energy-efficient route to degradable thermosets. Several cyclic silyl ethers and cyclic acetals are evaluated according to ease of synthesis, performance during frontal copolymerization, and degradability of the resultant materials. Due to the low ring strain of the cleavable comonomers, frontal polymerization dynamics are dominated by the molecular weight of the comonomers. Further, the identity of the cleavable unit is found to greatly influence the incorporation of the comonomer into the polymer network and therefore the degradability of the thermosets. Finally, strategies to leverage the hydroxyl groups generated during hydrolysis of the acetal or silyl ether units to recycle the thermosets is discussed.

Rapid, energy-efficient synthesis and recycling of degradable thermosets

ACS Spring Meeting 2021

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