Recycling of metallocene isotactic polypropylene: importance of antioxidants

Recycling of plastics is absolutely essential in a circular economy, especially in the case of commodity polymers from fossil resources, like isotactic polypropylene (iPP). Therefore, evaluation of the factors that are decisive for an optimum performance of the recycled based materials becomes manda...

ver descrição completa

Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Blázquez-Blázquez, Enrique, Díez-Rodríguez, Tamara M., Pérez, Ernesto, Cerrada, María L.
Formato: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2022
País:España
Recursos:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositorio:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/287891
Acesso em linha:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/287891
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palavra-chave:Recycling
Antioxidants · Polypropylene · Young’s modulus
Strain at break
http://metadata.un.org/sdg/12
Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
Descrição
Resumo:Recycling of plastics is absolutely essential in a circular economy, especially in the case of commodity polymers from fossil resources, like isotactic polypropylene (iPP). Therefore, evaluation of the factors that are decisive for an optimum performance of the recycled based materials becomes mandatory for the obtainment of new products with optimal properties. One of the most important aspects is the protection of the plastics materials not only against the external degradation agents, but also from the radicals generated during their previous service life. Accordingly, several materials have been prepared by extrusion based on virgin iPP with different amounts of the same polypropylene severely degraded, which has been used as model component to be recycled. Previous to the extrusion, a mixture of antioxidants was added to all the samples, and special attention has been paid to consumption of those additives during the extrusion. The results show an increasing reduction of antioxidants with rising content of the degraded material. But, importantly, a rather analogous mechanical response has been found for all the recycled materials in relation to the virgin iPP, pointing out a satisfactory dilution effect of the existing degradation points within the virgin polymeric chains, and indicating the very relevant action of the antioxidants used.