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Recycling post-consumer polyester bottles and fabrics to photocurable covalent adaptable networks
KTH, School of Engineering Sciences in Chemistry, Biotechnology and Health (CBH), Fibre- and Polymer Technology, Polymer Technology.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-2477-6896
KTH, School of Engineering Sciences in Chemistry, Biotechnology and Health (CBH), Fibre- and Polymer Technology.ORCID iD: 0009-0007-5127-5679
KTH, School of Engineering Sciences in Chemistry, Biotechnology and Health (CBH), Fibre- and Polymer Technology, Polymer Technology. (Wallenberg Initiative Materials Science for Sustainability)
KTH, School of Engineering Sciences in Chemistry, Biotechnology and Health (CBH), Fibre- and Polymer Technology, Polymer Technology. (Wallenberg Initiative Materials Science for Sustainability)ORCID iD: 0000-0002-7790-8987
2026 (English)In: Polymer Chemistry, ISSN 1759-9954, E-ISSN 1759-9962, Vol. 17, no 29, p. 3217-3225Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Recycling aromatic polyester waste into UV-curable covalent adaptable networks (CANs) offers a promising pathway toward bringing more materials into the circular economy. Here, we present a straightforward strategy to convert post-consumer polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles and polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) fabrics into photocurable, mechanically reprocessable, and chemically degradable CANs. PET and PBT were first depolymerized via glycolysis or alcoholysis to yield BHET and BHBT, which were subsequently methacrylated to form the resins PR and FR. A third resin, SBJR, containing dynamic imine (Schiff-base) linkages, was synthesized from methacrylated vanillin and Jeffamine to introduce reversible bonding into the network. These components enabled fabrication of two permanently crosslinked polymers (PR100 and FR100) and two covalent adaptable networks (CAN1 and CAN2). Structural analysis verified the expected chemical transformations, and all materials exhibited good thermal stability, with CANs showing slightly reduced T5% due to flexible aliphatic segments and reversible imine bonds. Rheological creep and stress-relaxation studies supported associative imine exchange as the governing mechanism without network dissociation. CAN2 also demonstrated robust solvent resistance and could be mechanically recycled and chemically degraded through imine-exchange-driven depolymerization. Overall, this work establishes an efficient molecular design framework for transforming plastic and textile waste into photocurable materials, advancing the value of plastic waste as a resource for new materials and reduced environmental pollution.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) , 2026. Vol. 17, no 29, p. 3217-3225
National Category
Polymer Chemistry Textile, Rubber and Polymeric Materials
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-387387DOI: 10.1039/d6py00244gISI: 001811687900001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-105043858390OAI: oai:DiVA.org:kth-387387DiVA, id: diva2:2094216
Note

QC 20260821

Available from: 2026-08-21 Created: 2026-08-21 Last updated: 2026-08-21Bibliographically approved

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Subramaniyan, SathiyarajGuerrero Ruiz, FedericoHakkarainen, Minna

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Subramaniyan, SathiyarajHindi, AmroGuerrero Ruiz, FedericoHakkarainen, Minna
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Polymer TechnologyFibre- and Polymer Technology
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Polymer ChemistryTextile, Rubber and Polymeric Materials

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