A PNU research team developed a way to recycle thermosetting plastic, a non-recyclable resource that is considered to be the main reason for environmental pollution. 

On May 11th, the PNU research team of Prof. Kim Chae-Bin (Dept. of Applied Chemical Engineering) announced that they had succeeded in developing the recycling technique of thermosetting plastic. Thermosetting plastic is a plastic that solidifies its shape with the first heat, and it does not melt again when re-heat. This plastic has low weight, low producing cost, and is substantial. Also, the chemical safety and the heat safety are high, so they are widely used in our daily lives. For example, plugs for electronic devices and chargers for laptops and computers are thermosetting plastic. 

The team of Prof. Kim developed the recycling technique using the photo-potential catalyst. Thermosetting plastic is considered a non-recyclable resource because the chemical bond of the chains of molecules is permanent. However, they proved that when a photo-potential catalyst is mixed with a thermosetting polymer and heated with light, the combined form switches to an organic covalent bond. Prof. Kim said, “The most common eco-friendly way of plastic recycling is heating the polymer of plastic, but this does not work with thermosetting plastic. Therefore, to solve this kind of problem, we focused our research on changing the permanent chemical bonds of non-recyclable thermosetting plastic polymers into exchangeable, reversible covalently bonded polymers (vitrimer).”

If this technique commercializes abroad, it will be possible to use in many different areas. A typical example is for car tires. If we mix the photo-potential catalyst with the tires made of thermosetting polymer materials, when the tire gets damaged, it can be fixed by heating light to the needed area. 

Prof. Kim said, “I am expecting commercialization of plastic smart repair technology.” The research of Prof. Kim’s team was published in ‘The Journal of Materials Chemistry A,’ an international academic journal in the field of energy and eco-friendly materials.

Reporter Shin Yu-Jun

Translated by Yun Chae-Eun