Industrial-Scale Polypropylene–Polyethylene Physical Alloying Toward Recycling
Jinping Qu, Zhao‐Xia Huang, Zhitao Yang, Guizhen Zhang, Xiaochun Yin, Yanhong Feng, Hezhi He, Gang Jin, Ting Wu, Guangjian He, Xianwu Cao
Abstract
Polypropylene (PP) and polyethylene (PE) play central roles in our daily life. However, their immiscibility presents a major hurdle in both industry and academia when recycling them into alloys with favorable mechanical properties. Moreover, typical compatibilizer-enabled approaches are limited due to increased environmental concerns. Herein, inspired by a traditional Chinese technique, we report a facile, industry-scale methodology that produces a PP/PE binary blend with a highly ordered honeycomb nanostructure without any additives. Due to its nanostructure, the blend exhibits enhanced tensile properties in comparison with the parent components or with a sample prepared using an internal mixer. This approach has potential for applications not only in immiscible polymer blending, but also in non-sorting, compatibilizer-free waste plastics recycling. Through this technique, we expect that an environmentally friendly and sustainable plastic wastes recycling avenue can be found, and great economic benefits can be gained.