Homolytic fracture of inorganic crystalline materials enhances the mechano-chemical degradation of polypropylene.

ABSTRACT: Mechano-chemistry can depolymerize plastics to their monomers. The conversion of polyolefins, however, suffers from low chain cleavage rates and the low stability of radical intermediates. Therefore, insights into the degradation mechanism are crucial to obtain higher yields. Herein, we promote the mechano-chemical degradation of polypropylene by milling with sand as an additive, which increases depolymerization yields by a factor of 25. Fracture of sand crystals causes homolytic cleavage of Si-O bonds resulting in unpaired surface electrons, which possess radical reactivity and can initiate degradation reactions of polypropylene, ultimately resulting in smaller hydrocarbons. We show that this mechanism based on surface radicals dominates over alternative pathways based on locally increase

SUBMITTER: Hergesell AH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12379351 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature