Transforming carbon dioxide into a new kind of recyclable plastics

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Researchers at Colorado State University have developed a process to transform naturally occurring and highly stable carbon dioxide into recyclable, high-performance materials that could replace today’s plastics in many situations.

Their catalytic process, described in the journal Nature, is another step toward a circular economy that reduces plastic waste and supports environmental sustainability.

The paper describes a closed-loop platform for producing a class of new materials from inexpensive carbon dioxide. The process uses a chemical reaction to combine carbon dioxide with a reactive molecule called bicycloalkane. An organic catalyst initiates this reaction to form new chemical bonds in the product structure. This results in durable and customizable synthetic plastics that are highly stable, meaning they can withstand stress from heat or attack from chemicals. The new material also features sought-after characteristics, such as high mechanical strength and flexibility. Crucially, the foundational building blocks of these new plastics can be recovered through recycling after their end use, as well.

University Distinguished Professor Eugene Chen led the work at CSU, and Postdoctoral Researcher Min Zhu served as the first author on the paper. The team included other CSU researchers as well as collaborators from Northwestern University. Funding for the project came from the National Science Foundation and the BOTTLE Consortium – a large national lab and university team that develops processes to recycle existing waste plastics and creates enhanced polymers supported by the U.S. Department of Energy. Chen holds a leadership role in that group which aims to improve chemocatalytic and biocatalytic recycling strategies to break down plastics and redesign intrinsically recyclable or biodegradable polymers across many scenarios.

Chen is the John K. Stille Endowed Chair in CSU’s College of Natural Sciences and the Millennial Professor of Polymer Science and Sustainability in the Department of Chemistry. He said researchers have been searching for a way to unlock the potential of carbon dioxide for this purpose because it is naturally occurring, odorless, nonflammable, abundant and inexpensive.

“There are existing processes utilizing carbon dioxide for polymer synthesis dating back to the 1960s. The challenge has been to maximize incorporation of inactive carbon dioxide into plastic products and produce the eco-friendlier polyesters that are recyclable and degradable,” he said. “Our approach unlocks the potential for carbon dioxide as a renewable and inexpensive resource to produce recyclable polyesters that also exhibit performance-advantaged and beneficial end-of-life properties.”

Zhu said that polymers derived from this process could be designed to be as strong as tough plastics or soft enough to be used in the same way as rubber.

“Additionally, our process offers an exciting use for carbon dioxide which, depending on the situation, can be beneficial or detrimental to our environment but is nonetheless renewable and inexpensive,” he said. “This approach could help close the carbon cycle by repurposing these emissions effectively.”

Chen has been working on sustainability and circular economy related research for decades. A key goal of that work is reducing waste and pollution by extending the life of materials across systems and designing environmentally more benign materials.

He said with this project the team is looking for ways to use captured carbon dioxide rather than store or release it to somewhere that would eventually find its way back to environment.

“We are developing an integrated technology that turns carbon dioxide capture into an intermediate as a building block for production of sustainable materials of many types and needs,” he said. “We look forward to developing this further in a collaborative approach with the larger scientific community.”