Upcycling Polyolefins into Value-Added Thermoplastics, Assisted by SEC-MALS
Presented by: Frank Leifarth, Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Landry Bennett, Ph.D., Wyatt Technology
Presented Live: December 14, 2021
Polyolefins are engineering thermoplastics that demonstrate diverse thermomechanical properties, attractive chemical resistance, and excellent processability. Though made from petroleum-derived monomers, greater than 60% of world plastic production remains dominated by polyolefins. Creating sustainable materials that compete with the performance and value proposition of polyolefins is a grand challenge for the field of polymer science.
The goal of research in the Leibfarth group is to develop synthetic methods that transform readily available starting materials into thermoplastics that are both functional and sustainable, with molecular-level precision. This work has resulted in platform synthetic methods that enhance the thermomechanical, adhesion, and transport properties of polyolefins while also uncovering mechanistic insights that broadly inform synthetic method development. In this web seminar, we will highlight how molecular weight determination, achieved via multi-angle light scattering coupled to size-exclusion chromatography (SEC-MALS), has enhanced these studies.
