View Project

To develop a novel class of multipurpose material using the plastic waste as the starting material

Usage of the plastics in day-to-day applications has made an explosive growth. Plastics have become an indispensable part of our life and at the same time a menace to the earth too. Hence, Plastics have become an indispensable part of our life and at the same time a menace to the earth too. Hence, it is essential to pay attention to the management of plastic waste which is a serious threat to the environment. Several researches have been carried out for the recycling and degradation of plastic waste. “Recycling” is now getting refashioned as “upcycling” where the plastic wastes are converted into various value-added products.1-3 Plastic has been upcycled to hydrocarbon, arene compounds, H2 fuel, organic acids, carbon (graphene, carbon nanotubes) and other porous materials. This proposal aims to develop a novel class of multipurpose material which will be synthesized from the pyrolyzed products of plastic waste and will be employed for detoxification of the harmful environmental pollutants. Pyrolysis (thermal decomposition) of the plastic yields solid (char), liquid and gaseous products without involving reaction with oxygen, water and other reagents.4 As mentioned by Al-Salem et al., pyrolysis is a thermo-chemical plastic waste treatment method that does not contribute to pollution and required less energy.5 Char, pyrolyzed solid product, is a good absorbent because of its highly porous carbon. In this proposal, char will be converted into the activated carbon via oxidation at high temperature. Activated carbons have high surface area, high thermal stability and high chemical resistance which are beneficial properties for applications.The high surface area is produced by the numerous pore networks inside the material. Activation will be optimized by two procedures including steam activation and chemical activation and the best yielding method will be finalized for this step. Thereafter, the activated porous carbon will be functionalized with multiple functional groups to achieve the on-demand properties which is a prerequisite for any application. Finally, the functionalized porous material will be employed for diverse applications in the field of energy storage, toxic metal adsorption, solid adsorbents in different industrial applications including wastewater treatment and gas purification.

To develop a novel class of multipurpose material using the plastic waste as the starting material. Thermal decomposition of the plastic waste will be optimized to produce maximum yield of porous carbon which will be undergone for activation followed by functionalization to prepare the functionalized porous material. The proposed material will have the access of incorporating customized functional groups to efficiently adsorb a wide range of pollutants including toxic heavy metals, dyes, pharmaceuticals, feed additives, CO2, I2. The properties of the material can also be tuned according to the need of the applications. This class will be a potential man-made material which will be synthesized from plastic waste and will efficiently detoxify the environmental pollutants towards developing a clean and healthy life.

Benefits of the proposed material are two-fold:

(i) plastic waste management

(ii) adsorptive removal system for detoxifying multiple environmental pollutants.