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Production and closed-loop recycling of biomass-based malleable materials

生物质基可锻造材料的制备和闭环循环利用

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Abstract

The search of biomass-based substitutes for fossil-based plastics has become a pressing task due to the severe long-term threats of plastic wastes to the ecosystem. However, the development in this area is strongly impeded by the high cost of biomass separation and the poor processability of unseparated biomass. Herein, we demonstrate, for the first time, an efficient and scalable method to generate greener plastics by directly integrating unseparated biomass waste (i.e., wood powder) with crosslinked covalent adaptable networks. Through a simple compression molding process, the wood biomass and polymer particles can be fused together to form a continuous material, which is endowed with repairability, reprocessibility, and closed-loop full recyclability. The method demonstrated in this work paves the way for largescale industrial production of environmentally friendly biomass- based plastics.

摘要塑料

废弃物的大量积累已经对生态系统造成了严重的威胁. 因此, 寻找和开发可以替代石油基塑料的生物质基材料成为亟待解决的问题. 然而, 分离生物质中各组分的成本较高, 且生物质材料不具备传统塑料的加工特性, 从而制约了生物质基塑料材料的开发. 本文报道了一种通过直接复合未分离的生物质和动态共价聚合物高效制备生物质基塑料的方法. 通过简单的热压复合生物质/动态共价聚合物混合物即可获得连续相的塑料状材料. 该材料不仅具有优异的可修复、再加工和热塑形特性, 而且可以完全降解和回收利用. 该研究为大规模工业化生产环境友好型生物质基塑料开辟了新道路.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge Prof. Yifu Ding of the University of Colorado Boulder for the instrumentation support with DMA. This work was supported by the University of Colorado Boulder, Wong KC Education Foundation, and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51673072). Su Z would like to thank China Scholarship Council (CSC) for financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Pulp and Paper Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510641, China

    Zhiping Su  (苏治平), Xiye Yang  (杨喜业) & Xiaohui Wang  (王小慧)

  2. Department of Chemistry, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, 80309, USA

    Zhiping Su  (苏治平), Yiming Hu  (胡一铭), Xiye Yang  (杨喜业), Rong Long  (龙荣), Yinghua Jin  (金英华) & Wei Zhang  (张伟)

Authors
  1. Zhiping Su  (苏治平)
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  2. Yiming Hu  (胡一铭)
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  3. Xiye Yang  (杨喜业)
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  4. Rong Long  (龙荣)
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  5. Yinghua Jin  (金英华)
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  6. Xiaohui Wang  (王小慧)
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  7. Wei Zhang  (张伟)
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Contributions

Su Z, Wang X and Zhang W conceived and designed the experiments. Su Z made a major contribution in all experiments and tests. Hu Y carried out the SEM characterization. Su Z, Hu Y, Yang X, Long R and Jin Y analyzed data and wrote the paper. Wang X and Zhang W supervised all experiments and revised the paper.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Xiaohui Wang  (王小慧) or Wei Zhang  (张伟).

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Zhiping Su received his BSc degree in 2014 from the College of Bioresource Chemical and Materials Engineering, Shaanxi University of Science and Technology. He is currently a PhD candidate at the State Key Laboratory of Pulp and Paper Engineering, South China University of Technology, under the supervision of Prof. Xiaohui Wang. His research interest focuses on biomassbased malleable thermosets and composites.

Xiaohui Wang received her PhD degree in 2006 from the School of Resource and Environmental Sciences, Wuhan University. She is currently a full professor at the State Key Laboratory of Pulp and Paper Engineering, South China University of Technology. Her research interest focuses on biomass-based functional materials, including malleable polymers, self-healing hydrogels, and flexible energy storage materials.

Wei Zhang received his BSc degree in 2000 from the College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University. He received his PhD degree in 2005 from the Department of Chemistry, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is currently a full professor in the Department of Chemistry, University of Colorado at Boulder. His research interest focuses on the design and synthesis of novel organic functional materials, nanocomposites and malleable self-healing polymers based on dynamic covalent chemistry.

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Su, Z., Hu, Y., Yang, X. et al. Production and closed-loop recycling of biomass-based malleable materials. Sci. China Mater. 63, 2071–2078 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40843-020-1349-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40843-020-1349-5

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