Descripción del proyecto
Un poco más cerca de los plásticos reciclables
El plástico es un material valioso que ocupa un lugar destacado en la economía. Eliminar los residuos plásticos, maximizar el valor del plástico y usar el plástico de manera eficiente debería ayudar a proteger el medio ambiente. El proyecto VIT, financiado por las Acciones Marie Skłodowska-Curie, estudiará los vitrímeros, unos polímeros nuevos con las mismas propiedades mecánicas que los materiales termoestables y que pueden fluir como termoplásticos a altas temperaturas. Estos polímeros están diseñados para superar los problemas esenciales relacionados con el uso de materiales compuestos y termoestables, materiales de elección para aplicaciones estructurales, que no se pueden reciclar ya que, a altas temperatura, no fluyen sino que se degradan. El equipo de VIT se propone dotar a los vitrímeros con propiedades ópticas y eléctricas muy convenientes que se mantendrán después del reciclaje, lo que satisface el paradigma de «reutilización-reparación-reciclaje» de la economía circular.
Objetivo
Plastics are strategic materials for several key sectors and the rethinking of plastics within the circular economy concept is pivotal for a more sustainable and resource efficient Europe. In particular, composites and thermosets, materials of choice for applications where long-term use and mechanical resistance are critical, cannot be mechanically re-processed since at elevated temperature they do not flow but degrade. A powerful new strategy to produce reprocessable cross-linked polymers is the functionalization of the polymer matrix with cross-links able to reverse or exchange at elevated temperatures. These covalent adaptable networks (CANs), also known as vitrimers, are able to shuffle chemical bonds through exchange reactions at high temperature, allowing for material reprocessing. To fully exploit the potential of vitrimers in high-end consumer goods, their properties need to be tailored to the specific application by embedding functional additives. Moreover, to accomplish vitrimer circularisation, such properties must also be preserved upon recycling. The VIT proposal intends to engineer vitrimers by endowing these polymers with highly desired functional optical and electrical properties, which are retained after recycling, fulfilling the circular economy paradigm “use-reuse-repair-recycle”. The VIT network gathers the expertise required to tackle this timely challenge. The consortium is composed of 10 high-level academic research groups from 3 different continents (Europe, America, Asia) and 2 highly innovative companies. By the seconding of 97 ERs/ERSs across Europe and worldwide, the aim is to capitalize on the consortium expertise in the chemistry and processing of functional materials to develop a new generation of advanced functional vitrimers able to satisfy the stringent requirements of reprocessability while preserving their properties.
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MSCA-RISE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research and Innovation Staff Exchange (RISE)Coordinador
43121 PARMA
Italia