Efficient Chemical Recycling of Nylon ۶ Using Dual Catalytic Hydrolysis

Traditional methods of polymer recycling, such as mechanical recycling, fail to meet the needs of acircular economy of polymers and avoid landfilling due to the low quality and health issues of thesecondary product. This study attempts to investigate the chemical recycling of nylon ۶, a highlyutilized engineering polymer, through hydrolysis using both acidic (ortho phosphoric acid) and ionicliquid (BMIM-BF۴) catalytic agents. The simultaneous use of these two catalytic agents at optimalamounts can reduce the activation energy by approximately ۹۰ kj/mol and increase the caprolactamyield to ۷۰% by weight. However, in higher amounts of catalysts, despite the lower activation energy,the yield decreases due to the occurrence of destructive or secondary reactions on the producedcaprolactam. Similar results were observed with excessive increases in reaction time and temperature.

کلیدواژه ها:

Circular economy ، Chemical recycling ، Nylon ۶ ، Catalyst ، Hydrolysis