Innovative Post-Functionalization Polyethylene For Chemical Upcycling and Controlled Degradation

Project summary

Polyethylene (PE) is the most widely produced and economically important thermoplastic, with a global annual production exceeding 150 million tons. It is available in a wide range of commercial grades and is used in diverse applications, including packaging, automotive components, and medical devices. However, its chemical inertness and the robustness of its C-C and C-H bonds make its chemical recycling particularly challenging.

This 24-month postdoctoral project aims to develop innovative strategies for the chemical modification of PE under mild conditions. The approach will focus on the introduction of functional groups along the polymer chains and/or the incorporation of cleavable motifs into the backbone. Rather than depolymerizing PE to its monomers, the objective is to create value-added materials through an “upcycling” strategy. By controlling the degree and nature of functionalization, the physical and chemical properties of the resulting materials can be tuned in a modular manner, opening new perspectives for expanding the application scope of PE.

The project lies at the interface between molecular chemistry, particularly C-H bond activation, and polymer chemistry, with an emphasis on the precise post-functionalization of polyolefins to address current limitations in their chemical recycling.

The research will be conducted jointly at the Laboratoire de Chimie des Polymères Organiques (LCPO) and the Institut des Sciences Moléculaires (ISM) in Bordeaux, under the supervision of Prof. D. Taton and Prof. Y. Landais, within the framework of the ANR-funded project “CYCLO-PE”.

Use the following link for application: LINK