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Project

Catalytic upgrading of polymeric feedstocks to high value building blocks

(EN) Reuse of (waste) polymers as feedstock is an important target for the chemical industry in order to achieve carbon circularity, as part of the trajectory towards carbon neutrality. Parallelly it is clear that a certain polymer feedstock does not necessarily needs to be converted to the same polymers or monomers. Ideally, one should produce higher value monomers from a feedstock with average value. In this PhD project, this approach is exemplified by the transformation of polycarbonate to amines. Polycarbonate is currently produced using bisphenols as monomers, and in the longer term use of these endocrine disrupting compounds is no longer desirable. Therefore, we aim at catalytically transforming these bisphenols to aromatic or cycloaliphatic diamines, which are themselves in high demand as monomers for the polyurethane industry. Catalysts should be maximally stable and active; in order to acquire insight in the structure-activity relationship, the catalyst is characterized physicochemically. It is as well evaluated whether the bisphenol amination can be integrated with the preceding chemolysis of (post-consumer) polycarbonate.

Date:1 Oct 2021 →  Today
Keywords:Catalysis, Sustainable Chemistry, Green Chemistry
Disciplines:Catalysis, Organic green chemistry
Project type:PhD project