Nowadays, less than 8% of the polymers produced each year are recycled and most of them are mechanically recycled: grinding and melt-processing, to obtain a low-quality material that will also rapidly ends up as a waste. Besides mechanical recycling and pyrolysis, the final method and probably the most challenging one to date is the chemical recycling. The polymer is used as a starting reagent to generate high purity monomers using simple and efficient transformations. Specifically, from chemical depolymerisation innovative added-value building blocks could be synthesized to prepare highly added value polymers (smart chemical recycling approach) from commodity polymers.<sup>2</sup> Our work is focused in the implementation of plastic recycling principle in carbonyl containing polymers such as polyesters, polycarbonates and/or polyurethanes which account to the 25-30 % of the total plastic production. To afford this goal, an innovative protic ionic salt, cheap, easy-to-produce and recyclable, has been developed to catalyse the depolymerisation.<sup>3</sup> Resisting up to 400 °C, this organocatalyst is active at the high reaction temperatures required for degrading polymers. It already allowed us to degrade polyethylene terephthalate (PET), and Bisphenol A based polycarbonate (BPA-PC), in a fully sustainable cycle.

Chemical upcycling of plastics from catalyst design to materials

ACS Spring 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.