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Heterogenous electromediated depolymerization of highly crystalline polyoxymethylene
Post-consumer plastic waste in the environment has driven the scientific community to develop deconstruction methods that yield valued substances from these synthetic macromolecules. Electrocatalysis is a well-established method for achieving challenging transformations in small molecule synthesis....
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Nature Publishing Group UK
2023
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10415396/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37563151 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-39362-z |
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author | Zhou, Yuting Rodríguez-López, Joaquín Moore, Jeffrey S. |
author_facet | Zhou, Yuting Rodríguez-López, Joaquín Moore, Jeffrey S. |
author_sort | Zhou, Yuting |
collection | PubMed |
description | Post-consumer plastic waste in the environment has driven the scientific community to develop deconstruction methods that yield valued substances from these synthetic macromolecules. Electrocatalysis is a well-established method for achieving challenging transformations in small molecule synthesis. Here we present the first electro-chemical depolymerization of polyoxymethylene—a highly crystalline engineering thermoplastic (Delrin®)—into its repolymerizable monomer, formaldehyde/1,3,5-trioxane, under ambient conditions. We investigate this electrochemical deconstruction by employing solvent screening, cyclic voltammetry, divided cell studies, electrolysis with redox mediators, small molecule model studies, and control experiments. Our findings determine that the reaction proceeds via a heterogeneous electro-mediated acid depolymerization mechanism. The bifunctional role of the co-solvent 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoro-2-propanol (HFIP) is also revealed. This study demonstrates the potential of electromediated depolymerization serving as an important role in sustainable chemistry by merging the concepts of renewable energy and circular plastic economy. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-10415396 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2023 |
publisher | Nature Publishing Group UK |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-104153962023-08-12 Heterogenous electromediated depolymerization of highly crystalline polyoxymethylene Zhou, Yuting Rodríguez-López, Joaquín Moore, Jeffrey S. Nat Commun Article Post-consumer plastic waste in the environment has driven the scientific community to develop deconstruction methods that yield valued substances from these synthetic macromolecules. Electrocatalysis is a well-established method for achieving challenging transformations in small molecule synthesis. Here we present the first electro-chemical depolymerization of polyoxymethylene—a highly crystalline engineering thermoplastic (Delrin®)—into its repolymerizable monomer, formaldehyde/1,3,5-trioxane, under ambient conditions. We investigate this electrochemical deconstruction by employing solvent screening, cyclic voltammetry, divided cell studies, electrolysis with redox mediators, small molecule model studies, and control experiments. Our findings determine that the reaction proceeds via a heterogeneous electro-mediated acid depolymerization mechanism. The bifunctional role of the co-solvent 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoro-2-propanol (HFIP) is also revealed. This study demonstrates the potential of electromediated depolymerization serving as an important role in sustainable chemistry by merging the concepts of renewable energy and circular plastic economy. Nature Publishing Group UK 2023-08-10 /pmc/articles/PMC10415396/ /pubmed/37563151 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-39362-z Text en © The Author(s) 2023 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . |
spellingShingle | Article Zhou, Yuting Rodríguez-López, Joaquín Moore, Jeffrey S. Heterogenous electromediated depolymerization of highly crystalline polyoxymethylene |
title | Heterogenous electromediated depolymerization of highly crystalline polyoxymethylene |
title_full | Heterogenous electromediated depolymerization of highly crystalline polyoxymethylene |
title_fullStr | Heterogenous electromediated depolymerization of highly crystalline polyoxymethylene |
title_full_unstemmed | Heterogenous electromediated depolymerization of highly crystalline polyoxymethylene |
title_short | Heterogenous electromediated depolymerization of highly crystalline polyoxymethylene |
title_sort | heterogenous electromediated depolymerization of highly crystalline polyoxymethylene |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10415396/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37563151 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-39362-z |
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