Recycling Polyurethanes through Transcarbamoylation
Liang Zhao, Vincent Semetey
Abstract
In this paper, we describe a new strategy to recycle polyurethanes (PUs) using base-catalyzed transcarbamoylation. PUs were depolymerized qualitatively in the presence of MeOH (methanol)/tetrahydrofuran as a solvent and tert-butoxide as a base catalyst. The resulting depolymerized mixture constituted by O-dimethylcarbamates and polyols can either be used as the starting material to synthesize new PUs with the transcarbamoylation approach or be purified to recover polyols and diisocyanates. The versatility and easy scaling-up of the experimental procedures and high depolymerization outcomes of the presented method make this strategy very attractive for PU recycling.
Topics & Concepts
DepolymerizationTetrahydrofuranMethanolCatalysisSolventBase (topology)ChemistryOrganic chemistryPolyurethaneMaterials sciencePolymer chemistryMathematicsMathematical analysisCarbon dioxide utilization in catalysisChemical Synthesis and ReactionsSynthetic Organic Chemistry Methods