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New Ways of Post-modifying Polyethylene to Facilitate its Chemical Degradation or Chemical Upcycling
Category: Ph. D.
Duration: 3 years
Team: Polymerization catalyses and engineering
Funding: ANR CYCLO-PE
Laboratory: LCPO + ISM
Contacts : Daniel Taton
Project summary
Polyethylene (PE) is the most widely used and economical engineering thermoplastic, with worldwide production of over 150 million tons a year. PE is marketed in a variety of commercial grades used in diverse applications (packaging, automotive parts, medical devices, etc.). However, PE is not easily recyclable by chemical means, due to the robustness of its constitutive bonds. The aim of this PhD thesis is to develop new methodologies for chemically modifying PE, under relatively mild conditions, by installing a variety of functional groups in lateral positions, or degradable motifs in its backbone. In this way, rather than recycling PE by reverting to the basic monomer, the aim is to add value to PE grades (“upcycling”). By varying the degree of substitution, the properties of PEs derived in this way should be able to be manipulated in a modular way, offering new possibilities for broadening PE's property profile. This program lies at the interface of molecular chemistry, concerning the study of C-H bond activation, and macromolecular synthesis aiming at the precise chemical post-modification of PE to overcome the current limitations of PE chemical recycling.
Candidates are invited to apply via the following link: