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Giving superabsorbent polymers a second life as pressure-sensitive adhesives
Summary
Researchers developed a method to recycle the super-absorbent plastic found in diapers and hygiene products — a material normally destined for landfills — into functional adhesives, while a life cycle assessment confirmed the recycled adhesives produce less CO2 than petroleum-derived alternatives. The work demonstrates a practical path to give a notoriously difficult-to-recycle polymer waste stream a second life.
An estimated 6.3 billion metric tons of post-consumer polymer waste has been produced, with the majority (79%) in landfills or the environment. Recycling methods that utilize these waste polymers could attenuate their environmental impact. For many polymers, recycling via mechanical processes is not feasible and these materials are destined for landfills or incineration. One salient example is the superabsorbent material used in diapers and feminine hygiene products, which contain crosslinked sodium polyacrylates. Here we report an open-loop recycling method for these materials that involves (i) decrosslinking via hydrolysis, (ii) an optional chain-shortening via sonication, and (iii) functionalizing via Fischer esterification. The resulting materials exhibit low-to-medium storage and loss moduli, and as such, are applicable as general-purpose adhesives. A life cycle assessment demonstrates that the adhesives synthesized via this approach outcompete the same materials derived from petroleum feedstocks on nearly every metric, including carbon dioxide emissions and cumulative energy demand.
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