Recent advance in poly(bisphenol a carbonate) chemical recycling: catalysts, reaction strategies, and its applications

Abstract

The chemical upcycling of waste plastics into high-value-added products such as monomers, fuels, or fine chemicals represents a promising strategy for mitigating the adverse effects of massive end-of-life plastics. Poly(bisphenol A carbonate) (BPA-PC) stands out as a notable engineering plastic due to its exceptional overall performance; however, its durability and potential environmental toxicity make its recycling imperative. Although a lot of reviews about plastic degradation have been done before our review, the progress for plastic degradation needs to be constantly updated and summarized due to the rapid development of this field. Meanwhile, BPA-PC, as an important notable engineering plastic, previous reviews only focused on its depolymerization into monomers and missed their further conversion into final chemicals. which In this concise review, we summarize recent developments in the chemical upcycling of BPA-PC to valuable chemicals, emphasizing the role of various catalysts and reagents. Some of the most utilized chemical upcycling strategies such as alcoholysis, aminolysis and upcycling of BPA-PC in “polymer-to-polymer” format to reproduce new polymers are elucidated in detail. Finally, we provide insights into the future prospects of chemical upcycling for waste BPA-PC.

Keywords

Poly(bisphenol A carbonate) / chemical upcycling / alcoholysis / aminolysis / high-value-added fine chemicals

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