Abstract
The industrial production of polymeric materials is continuously increasing, but sustainable concepts directing towards a circular economy remain rather elusive. The present investigation focuses on the recycling of polyoxymethylene polymers, facilitated through combined catalytic processing of polymer waste and biomass‐derived diols. The integrated concept enables the production of value‐added cyclic acetals, which can flexibly function as solvents, fuel additives, pharmaceutical intermediates, and even monomeric materials for polymerization reactions. Based on this approach, an open‐loop recycling of these waste materials can be envisaged in which the carbon content of the polymer waste is efficiently utilized as a C1 building block, paving the way to unprecedented possibilities within a circular economy of polyoxymethylene polymers.
Highlights
The industrial production of polymeric materials is continuously increasing, but sustainable concepts directing towards a circular economy remain rather elusive
The present investigation focuses on the recycling of polyoxymethylene polymers (POM, known as polyacetal), a thermoplastic material produced by the homo- or copolymerization of formaldehyde in a production capacity of around
We have demonstrated effective recycling of POM plastic materials, which is facilitated by the combined catalytic processing of polymer waste and biomass-derived diols
Summary
The industrial production of polymeric materials is continuously increasing, but sustainable concepts directing towards a circular economy remain rather elusive. In the absence of any acid, the envisaged formation of 1,3-dioxane product was not observed and the starting polymer remained undissolved in the reaction mixture (Table 1, entry 1).
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