100th Anniversary of Macromolecular Science Viewpoint: Redefining Sustainable Polymers

Fagnani, Danielle E.; Tami, Jessica L.; Copley, Graeme; Clemons, Mackenzie N.; Getzler, Yutan D. Y. L.; McNeil, Anne J.

doi:10.1021/acsmacrolett.0c00789

Cited by 212 publications

(213 citation statements)

References 152 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

209

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…[11][12][13][14][15] Both methods are a closed-loop, that is, compatible with circular-economy principles. [16] The billion tons of synthetic-polymer-based materials (i.e. plastics) produced yearly are a great challenge for humanity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nature‐Inspired Circular‐Economy Recycling for Proteins: Proof of Concept

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The billion tons of synthetic‐polymer‐based materials (i.e. plastics) produced yearly are a great challenge for humanity. Nature produces even more natural polymers, yet they are sustainable. Proteins are sequence‐defined natural polymers that are constantly recycled when living systems feed. Digestion is the protein depolymerization into amino acids (the monomers) followed by their re‐assembly into new proteins of arbitrarily different sequence and function. This breaks a common recycling paradigm where a material is recycled into itself. Organisms feed off of random protein mixtures that are “recycled” into new proteins whose identity depends on the cell's specific needs. In this study, mixtures of several peptides and/or proteins are depolymerized into their amino acid constituents, and these amino acids are used to synthesize new fluorescent, and bioactive proteins extracellularly by using an amino‐acid‐free, cell‐free transcription–translation (TX–TL) system. Specifically, three peptides (magainin II, glucagon, and somatostatin 28) are digested using thermolysin first and then using leucine aminopeptidase. The amino acids so produced are added to a commercial TX–TL system to produce fluorescent proteins. Furthermore, proteins with high relevance in materials engineering (β‐lactoglobulin films, used for water filtration, or silk fibroin solutions) are successfully recycled into biotechnologically relevant proteins (fluorescent proteins, catechol 2,3‐dioxygenase).

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nature‐Inspired Circular‐Economy Recycling for Proteins: Proof of Concept

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Pyrolysis is the most commonly used chemical conversion for polyolefins, which lack specific reactive sites for controlled depolymerization. [7] In the context of chemical recycling of plastics, the resulting pyrolysis oil can be co-fed to a refinery so that a fraction of the monomers produced come from recycled plastics. Pyrolysis technology requires high temperatures of over 400°C and results in a heterogeneous mixture of gaseous and liquid products that must be separated, leading to high costs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hybrid Chemomechanical Plastics Recycling: Solvent‐free, High‐Speed Reactive Extrusion of Low‐Density Polyethylene.

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Low-density polyethylene (LDPE) is ubiquitous in the packaging industry owing to its flexibility, toughness, and low cost. However, it is typically contaminated with other materials, seriously limiting options for mechanical recycling. Interest in chemical recycling techniques such as pyrolysis and hydrothermal liquefaction is growing, but most of these processes face technoeconomic challenges that have limited commercial deployment. This study concerns a hybrid chemomechanical approach using reactive twin-screw extrusion (TSE) for tailoring the molecular weight and chain structure of reclaimed LDPE. Two types of zeolite catalysts at several loading levels are evaluated over a range of processing conditions. Structural, thermal, and rheological properties of the extruded samples are investigated and compared to virgin LDPE and LDPE extruded without the catalyst. NMR spectroscopy is used to investigate changes in the structure of the polymer. LDPE extruded with microporous Y zeolite shows lower degradation temperature and increased short chain branching. Mesoporous MCM-41 also induces increased branching but has no effect on the degradation temperature. The theoretical mechanical energy input for the chemical modification is calculated by using process modeling. The demonstrated hybrid reactive extrusion process provides a potential low-cost, simple approach for repurposing LDPE-based flexible packaging as coatings and adhesives.

show abstract

“…compatible with circular economy principles. [16] It is fair to state that recycling a material into the same material is the current paradigm in recycling. To go beyond this paradigm, current trends in polymer recycling involve their degradation into small molecules, that are then re-used in further chemical processes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nature-inspired Circular-economy Recycling (NaCRe) for Proteins: Proof of Concept

Giaveri

Schmitt

Julià

et al. 2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In 2070, 1012 Kg of polymer-based materials (i.e. plastics) might be produced yearly, posing one of the greatest challenges that humanity has to face. Even though natural polymers, such as proteins and nucleic acids, are more abundant than synthetic ones, they are sustainable. The key property of such natural polymers is that they are sequence-defined. This allows for recycling to start with depolymerization into monomers, and end in the re-assembly of new polymers of arbitrarily different sequence. This process breaks a common recycling paradigm that a material is recycled only into itself. An organism digests proteins into amino acids. These are re-assembled into new proteins whose identity depends on the cell’s needs at the time of protein synthesis. Here we show that the process described above is achievable extra-cellularly. Specifically, we depolymerized a mixture of different peptides and/or proteins into their amino acid constituents and used these amino acids to synthesize fluorescent proteins using an amino acid-free cell-free transcription-translation system. We were successful in recycling proteins with high relevance in materials engineering (β-lactoglobulin films, used for water filtration, or silk fibroin solutions) into a biotechnologically relevant protein (green fluorescent protein). The potential long-term impact of this approach to recycling lies in its compatibility with circular-economy models where raw materials remain in use as long as possible, thus reducing the burden on the planet.

show abstract

100th Anniversary of Macromolecular Science Viewpoint: Redefining Sustainable Polymers

Cited by 212 publications

References 152 publications

Nature‐Inspired Circular‐Economy Recycling for Proteins: Proof of Concept

Nature‐Inspired Circular‐Economy Recycling for Proteins: Proof of Concept

Hybrid Chemomechanical Plastics Recycling: Solvent‐free, High‐Speed Reactive Extrusion of Low‐Density Polyethylene.

Nature-inspired Circular-economy Recycling (NaCRe) for Proteins: Proof of Concept

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About