Reductive depolymerization of waste plastics and lignin using molecular catalysts

Louis Monsigny (1) , Elias Feghali (1) , Jean Claude Berthet (1) , Thibault Cantat (1)

1 LCMCE - Laboratoire de Chimie Moléculaire et de Catalyse pour l'Energie (ex LCCEF)

Plastics are ubiquitous in our modern society. Mainly due to their lightness, their ease to be molded and their low costs, these polymers have forced their use in various applications such as electronics, packaging, medicine, etc. It is estimated that 4-6 % of the annual productio'ri of fossil ressources are used to supply the 322 millions tons of plastics required worldwide. Main recycling processes ,of these materials do not meet sustainable criteria since they are based on incineration and landfilling and the later causes irreversible contamination of the oceans, the soils and the fauna leading to an increasing concern in the population. To circumvent these ecological issues, the most promising approaches consist in decoupling plastics from fossils feedstocks by producing biosourced monomers and to improve recycling at the same time as to reduce losses of organic matter. ln this context, we recently developed an efficient strategy for the reductive depolymerization of oxygenated polymers such as some plastics and lignin to afford pure compounds. This method involves the hydrosilylation of oxygenated polymers under homogeneous catalytic conditions with tris(pentafluorophenyl)borane B(C$_6$F$_5$)$_3$. Based on this approach, we search for novel metal catalysts able to hydrosilylate strong CO bonds and that would be more stable and selective than B(C$_6$F$_5$)$_3$ (Scheme 1).

Domaines: Matériaux

Louis Monsigny, Elias Feghali, Jean Claude Berthet, Thibault Cantat. Reductive depolymerization of waste plastics and lignin using molecular catalysts. IsySyCat 2017 (International Symposium on Synthesis and Catalysis), Sep 2017, Evora, Portugal. ⟨cea-02340976⟩