Research Article Cite This: ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
pubs.acs.org/journal/ascecg
Extraction of Biolubricant via Chemical Recycling of Thermosetting Polymers Xiao Kuang,†,‡,# Emily Guo,§,# Kaijuan Chen,†,‡ and H. Jerry Qi*,†,‡ †
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The George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332, United States ‡ Renewable Bioproduct Institute, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332, United States § Chattahoochee High School, Johns Creek, Georgia 30022, United States S Supporting Information *
ABSTRACT: Dicarboxylic acid esters possessing the consistency of conventional hydrocarbon oils have been utilized as biolubricants and additives. In general, dicarboxylic acid ester biolubricants are obtained by catalytic transesterification between fatty acids, methyl esters, or triglycerides as precursors. Here, we develop a new strategy to produce dicarboxylic acid esters through the chemical recycling of thermosetting polymer waste. Thermosets with tunable mechanical properties derived from epoxy oligomer and dicarboxyl acid can be decomposed in a zinc acetylacetonate/2-ethyl-hexanol solution at relatively mild temperatures (
