Project description
New methods to produce low-cost, high-quality polymers
Less than 9 % of plastic is recycled, as current recycling technology results in degraded materials due to undesired mechano-chemical bond cleavage, which shortens the polymer during repeated processing. The ERC-funded IMPACT project will employ a new catalyst called monomers to recover polymer building blocks and produce high-quality polymers, specifically focusing on polyolefins. By breaking carbon-carbon bonds with force instead of heat, the project aims to repurpose a ball mill to create catalytic sites on the ball surface. This approach will reduce energy costs and yield purer monomers from polyolefins. Additionally, the project seeks to understand the reaction mechanism, develop a predictive model for cleavage rates, and apply the new catalyst to various polymers.
Objective
Less than 9% of plastic is recycled. Currently applied recycling technology yields degraded materials because undesired mechano-chemical bond cleavage shortens the polymer upon repeated processing. Here, I introduce a new type of catalyst to exploit this undesired effect to recover the polymer building blocks, the monomers, which enables the production of new high-quality polymer. I will focus on polyolefins (PP, PE) that make up 50% of polymer production and for which the state-of-the-art pyrolysis process has high energy costs and does not yield pure monomer. That is because at the 600 °C needed to break the strong carbon-carbon (C-C) bonds of PP and PE unwanted reactions occur. Adding a catalyst powder, a known strategy to exert reaction control, is inefficient for polymers because they cannot reach the active sites in the catalyst pores.
I will break the C-C bonds with force instead of heat. The force is provided by collision of balls in a ball mill, a mature grinding technology that I repurpose as reactor to introduce my tunable direct mechano-catalyst: I will chemically treat the surface of the balls to create catalytic, e.g. acid, sites that are in efficient contact with polymer through vigorous ball movement. In our ground-breaking proof-of-concept experiment, we were surprised to see monomer form below 60 °C from PP, and a remarkable 4x increased activity over a traditional catalyst.
To realize the full potential of this new catalytic concept, I will establish the underlying fundamental framework by A) understanding the mechanism of reactions following C-C cleavage, B) developing a predictive model of cleavage rate as a function of temperature and force and C) understanding the synergistic interplay of catalytic spheres and mechano-chemical activation. To achieve this, I will develop a new methodology for in-situ spectroscopy during ball milling in combination with radical trapping and apply the tunable direct mechano-catalysts to a variety of polymers.
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. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences chemical sciences polymer sciences
- natural sciences chemical sciences catalysis
- natural sciences physical sciences optics spectroscopy
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2024-STG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
3584 CS Utrecht
Netherlands
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.