Polyurethane Chemical Recycling

Polyurethane Chemical Recycling

Thermoset polymers such as polyurethanes (PUs) are heavily used in applications like foams, elastomers, coatings, adhesives and fibers. However, they also cause significant waste, highlighting the need for carefully designed recycling processes. The polymer has repeating urethane units which are formulated from a polyol and a diisocyanate. Existing chemical recovery methods primarily facilitate the recovery of polyol monomer. The recovery of isocyanates is, however, difficult and is typically limited by the need of a phosgenation step.

We are looking for a motivated Bachelor/Master student to help in furthering research on the PU decomposition method developed in our group and its application scope.

Several interesting research questions can be part of the assignment:

What are the advantages of different carbonates on the decomposition of PU foams?
Is it feasible to achieve the urethane cleavage using solid carbonates (solvent-free)?
Can we separate the two products, carbonated polyol from dicarbamate by extraction?
Can we use the decomposition product functionalized polyol to synthesize new NIPUs (non-isocyanate PUs)?
Can we adapt the decomposition process to different ones such as based on microwave or ball-mill chemistry?

These questions can guide discovery of future applications for achieving full recovery of PUs in industry and as well as fundamental research questions about their chemical nature.

Contact info:

Supervisor:
Jurriaan Huskens, j.huskens@utwente.nl

Daily Supervisor:
Ege Hosgor, e.hosgor@utwente.nl