Project description
Improved degradable plastics
Custom-degradable plastics are designed to break down more easily under specific environmental conditions, such as exposure to light or heat. These plastics are engineered with additives or chemical structures that enable controlled degradation, reducing the environmental impact compared to traditional plastics, which can persist for hundreds of years. With the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the IMPULSE project aims to synthesise renewable polyethers with tuneable properties, offering versatility in structure and degradation potential. The generated products will exhibit enhanced mechanical, thermal, and optical properties, also offering the opportunity for repurposing of their degradation products. IMPULSE is expected to reduce the carbon footprint of plastics and generate more sustainable materials for greener applications.
Objective
The synthesis of novel monomers that combine a bio-origin, scalability, low cost, and structural modularity merged with the synthesis of custom-degradable plastics is one of the major objectives in sustainable development. Realization of these goals can contribute to a circular rather than a linear economy. Within this context, the IMPULSE project aims to develop novel strategies for the catalytic synthesis of renewable polyethers featuring tunable properties using isopropenyl esters (iPEs) as biobased and inexpensive precursors. The key polymerization strategy that is used entails ring-opening polymerization (ROP) through proper activation of iPE-derived oxides using Host-developed catalysts with known potential. The epoxide monomers are obtained through enzymatic epoxidation to streamline the green efforts of this research program. The main strengths of IMPULSE are the versatility of the starting precursors, the possibility of modulating the polyether structures and their properties before or after their synthesis, and the potential for degradation of the polyethers through controlled depolymerization, thereby creating a circular atom approach by repurposing the degradation products. The creation of a wider range of commercially attractive polyether macromolecules can boost a transition to biobased analogues with a significantly expanded application potential, and an increased tunability of the mechanical, thermal and optical properties while enabling an improved carbon footprint.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringwaste managementwaste treatment processesrecycling
- natural scienceschemical sciencescatalysis
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Keywords
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Main Programme
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European FellowshipsCoordinator
43007 Tarragona
Spain