Redesigned Hybrid Nylons with Optical Clarity and Chemical Recyclability

Cywar, Robin M.; Rorrer, Nicholas A.; Mayes, Heather B.; Maurya, Anjani K.; Tassone, Christopher J.; Beckham, Gregg T.; Chen, Eugene Y.-X.

doi:10.1021/jacs.1c12611

Title: Redesigned Hybrid Nylons with Optical Clarity and Chemical Recyclability

Journal Article · Tue Mar 15 00:00:00 EDT 2022 · Journal of the American Chemical Society

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.1c12611· OSTI ID:1860242

Cywar, Robin M. ^[1];

^[2];

^[2]; Maurya, Anjani K. ^[3]; Tassone, Christopher J. ^[3];

^[1];

^[4]

Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO (United States); National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO (United States)

Aliphatic polyamides, or nylons, are typically highly crystalline and thermally robust polymers used in high-performance applications. Nylon 6, a high-ceiling-temperature (HCT) polyamide from e-caprolactam, lacks expedient chemical recyclability, while low-ceiling temperature (LCT) nylon 4 from pyrrolidone exhibits complete chemical recyclability, but it is thermally unstable and not melt-processable. Here, we introduce a hybrid nylon, nylon 4/6, based on a bicyclic lactam composed of both HCT ..epsilon..-caprolactam and LCT pyrrolidone motifs in a hybridized offspring structure. Hybrid nylon 4/6 overcomes trade-offs in (de)polymerizability and performance properties of the parent nylons, exhibiting both excellent polymerization and facile depolymerization characteristics. This stereoregular polyamide forms nanocrystalline domains, allowing optical clarity and high thermal stability, however, without displaying a melting transition before decomposition. Of a series of statistical copolymers comprising nylon 4/6 and nylon 4, a 50/50 copolymer achieves the greatest synergy in both reactivity and polymer properties of each homopolymer, offering an amorphous nylon with favorable properties, including optical clarity, a high glass transition temperature, melt processability, and full chemical recyclability.

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Research Organization:: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC36-08GO28308

OSTI ID:: 1860242

Report Number(s):: NREL/JA-2A00-81806; MainId:82579; UUID:c85eed8e-3be2-4683-b1ed-92ddc7fdd5a2; MainAdminID:64121

Journal Information:: Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol. 144, Issue 12; ISSN 0002-7863

Publisher:: American Chemical Society (ACS)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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