The work of our colleagues Sylvain Caillol, Dimitri BERNE and Florian Cuminet, carried out in collaboration with Katalin Barta of Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz, marks a significant advance in the field of plastics recyclability, and has just been published in the prestigious Science Magazine.
Plastics formed from epoxy resins are prized for their strength and heat resistance, but these properties also make them difficult to break down and recycle.
In this publication, the authors highlight a new epoxy resin-based plastic variant derived from biomass. This variant decomposes easily in methanol, enabling components to be recovered and reconverted to their original monomers, for closed-loop recycling.
These scientific advances, combined with strong commercial potential, mark an important step towards integrating thermosetting materials into a circular, bio-sourced economy.