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Papers
61,005 resultsShowing papers similar to Depolymerization of PMMA-based Dental Resin Scraps in Dif-ferent Production Scales
ClearDepolymerization of PMMA-Based Dental Resin Scraps on Different Production Scales
Not relevant to microplastics — this paper investigates the thermal depolymerization of waste dental PMMA resin in fixed-bed pyrolysis reactors to recover methyl methacrylate monomer, focused on chemical recycling rather than microplastic pollution.
Photo-Initiated Depolymerization of Consumer Poly(methyl methacrylate): Chlorine Not Required
Researchers developed a low-temperature chemical recycling method for poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) that uses UV illumination at 120-180 degrees C to depolymerize the acrylic polymer back to monomer, eliminating the need for chlorine and drastically reducing the 350-400 degrees C temperatures required by conventional thermal recycling.
Valorisation of plastic waste via metal-catalysed depolymerisation
This review covers metal-catalysed depolymerisation approaches for recycling and upcycling waste plastics back into monomers or value-added chemicals, highlighting recent advances in catalyst design that improve selectivity and yield for common polymer types.
Research progress on chemical depolymerization and upcycling of PET waste plastics
This review examines recent advances in chemical methods for breaking down polyethylene terephthalate (PET) waste plastics into useful raw materials. Researchers surveyed techniques including glycolysis, methanolysis, hydrolysis, and aminolysis that can convert PET back into monomers for reuse. The study highlights chemical depolymerization as a promising approach to reduce plastic pollution while recovering valuable materials from waste.
Chemical Recycling of Polycarbonate and Polyester without Solvent and Catalyst: Mechanochemical Methanolysis
This study presents a solvent-free, mechanochemical method for recycling polycarbonate and polyester plastics back into reusable monomers using ball-milling. This green approach could help reduce the accumulation of hard-to-recycle plastics that eventually fragment into microplastics in the environment.
On technological solutions for recycling of recycling of polymer waste: A review
This paper is not directly about microplastics; it reviews technological approaches to recycling polymer waste — mechanical, chemical, and energy-based methods — and analyzes their economic and environmental trade-offs. Better plastic recycling technology is relevant to microplastic prevention insofar as it reduces the amount of plastic that degrades into environmental microplastic particles.
Recycling of Waste Polymethyl-Methacrylate as an Optical Transparent Host
This paper is not about microplastics — it describes a materials science study on recycling waste polymethyl methacrylate (acrylic glass) into optically transparent films for photonic applications, with no connection to microplastic pollution.
Plasma-Based Plastic Depolymerization
This paper reviews plasma-based technologies as an approach to depolymerise plastic waste, framing the problem partly around the downstream risks of microplastic formation as larger plastics fragment in the environment. While technically focused on a recycling solution, it contextualises the urgency around plastics management given unknown health effects of microplastic ingestion by humans.
Current Advances and Challenges in Chemical Recycling of Polymeric Materials
This review examines current advances and remaining challenges in chemical recycling of polymeric materials as an alternative to mechanical recycling, which degrades material properties with repeated cycling. The authors discuss the high efficiency and simpler preprocessing requirements of chemical recycling methods against a backdrop of approximately 150 million metric tonnes of annual global plastic waste generation.
Light-driven polymer recycling to monomers and small molecules
Researchers reviewed how sunlight can be harnessed to chemically break down plastic waste into reusable molecules, offering a lower-energy alternative to heat-based recycling methods like pyrolysis. While still limited to certain plastic types, light-driven recycling shows promise for converting hard-to-recycle plastics into valuable chemical building blocks.
Optimization of Pressurized Alkaline Hydrolysis for Chemical Recycling of Post-Consumer PET Waste
This study optimized pressurized alkaline hydrolysis conditions for chemically recycling post-consumer PET waste into its constituent monomers, demonstrating a pathway to improve the efficiency of PET depolymerization.
Recovery of plastic waste through its thermochemical degradation: a review
This review examines pyrolysis as a promising technology for recovering valuable chemical compounds from plastic waste, which reached approximately 368 million tons of global production in 2020 alone. Researchers discuss how thermal and catalytic degradation can convert different types of thermoplastics into high-energy-value products. The study also highlights the environmental and health impacts of plastic accumulation, including the effects of microplastic consumption on human and animal health.
Polymers Recycling: Upcycling Techniques. an Overview
This paper is not about microplastics in a research sense; it is an overview of polymer recycling and upcycling techniques, mentioning microplastic accumulation briefly as motivation but not investigating microplastics directly.
Thermal Characterization and Recycling of Polymers from Plastic Packaging Waste
Scientists collected and analyzed 23 random plastic packaging waste samples from food and non-food products in Greece, identifying polyethylene, PET, polypropylene, and polystyrene as the most common polymers. Using pyrolysis, they broke these plastics down into valuable chemical products including monomers like styrene and ethylene. The research demonstrates that better characterization and recycling of packaging waste could recover useful materials and help reduce the roughly 62% of plastic packaging that currently goes unrecycled in Europe.
Degradation and Recycling of Polymer Materials
This review synthesizes research on the degradation and recycling of polymer materials, covering microplastic formation, recycling strategies, and plastic degradation mechanisms as responses to the significant environmental damage caused by discarded plastics in ocean and other ecosystems.
Chemical Recycling of Plastics by Microwave‐Assisted High‐Temperature Pyrolysis
Researchers developed a microwave-assisted high-temperature pyrolysis method that continuously breaks down mixed plastic waste and plant oil into useful chemicals like ethylene and propylene. This chemical recycling approach could help divert plastic waste from the environment while producing renewable building blocks for new materials.
Morpho-structural and thermo-mechanical characterization of recycled polypropylene and polystyrene from mixed post-consumer plastic waste
Researchers characterized recycled polypropylene and polystyrene recovered from mixed post-consumer plastic waste, assessing their morphological, structural, and thermo-mechanical properties to evaluate suitability for reuse in manufacturing.
Novel robust upcycling approach for the manufacture of value-added polymers based on mixed (poly)urethane scraps
This study developed a novel process for recycling mixed polyurethane scraps into new value-added polymers. Upcycling thermoset plastics that are currently unrecyclable could prevent these materials from fragmenting into microplastics in the environment.
Mechanical Recycling of Disposable Protective Masks
Disposable face masks — a major source of pandemic-era plastic waste — were mechanically recycled through extrusion to assess whether their polypropylene layers retain useful material properties. The study found that mechanical recycling had only minor effects on thermal properties, suggesting masks could be diverted from landfill and reprocessed into raw material, reducing the chance that mask fibers fragment into environmental microplastics.
Recent Progress in Polyolefin Plastic: Polyethylene and Polypropylene Transformation and Depolymerization Techniques
This review covers new methods for breaking down polyethylene and polypropylene, the two most common types of plastic, into reusable materials. Since mechanical recycling only handles a small fraction of plastic waste, chemical approaches like pyrolysis and hydrogenolysis offer more promising solutions. These techniques are important because the breakdown of these same plastics into microplastics is a major source of environmental and health contamination.
Process parameter optimization for waste polyethylene terephthalate bottle depolymerization using neutral hydrolysis
Researchers optimized process parameters for the neutral hydrolysis depolymerization of waste polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles as a chemical recycling strategy to address growing plastic waste accumulation in landfills. The study identified key conditions that improve depolymerization efficiency, offering a pathway to recover high-quality monomers from post-consumer PET.
Optimisation of Process Parameters to Maximise the Oil Yield from Pyrolysis of Mixed Waste Plastics
Researchers optimized the process parameters for thermal pyrolysis of mixed waste plastics to maximize oil yield from HDPE, polypropylene, and polystyrene. The study used response surface methodology to identify ideal conditions for converting plastic waste into pyrolytic oil, supporting chemical recycling as a strategy to reduce plastic pollution.
Chemical-Physical Characterization of Bio-Based Biodegradable Plastics in View of Identifying Suitable Recycling/Recovery Strategies and Numerical Modeling of PLA Pyrolysis
Researchers characterized several bio-based and biodegradable polymer alternatives to conventional plastics using chemical-physical methods, assessing their suitability for industrial composting and identifying challenges in managing these bioplastics in the existing waste stream.
Light-Driven Polymer Recycling to Monomers and Small Molecules
Researchers developed and reviewed light-driven photochemical methods for recycling polymers back into monomers and small molecules, presenting an energy-efficient alternative to high-temperature pyrolysis and other chemical recycling approaches. The study shows that photocatalytic depolymerization can achieve selective bond cleavage at lower energy inputs, advancing the viability of circular polymer chemistry.