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Suppressing mechanical property variability in recycled plastics via bioinspired design
Dimitrios Georgiou1, Danqi Sun1, Xing Liu2
1Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332.
Summary
We developed a novel brick-and-mortar design for recycled plastics, embedding stiff plastic flakes in a soft matrix. This approach significantly reduces property variability, enabling wider industrial adoption of recycled materials.
Area of Science:
- Materials Science
- Polymer Science
- Mechanical Engineering
Background:
- Annual plastic waste exceeds 350 million metric tons, with significant environmental impact.
- Mechanical recycling is limited by the high variability in recycled plastic properties, hindering industrial application.
- Natural materials demonstrate robustness despite microstructural variations, offering design inspiration.
Purpose of the Study:
- To introduce a universal, chemistry-agnostic design strategy for recycled polymers to mitigate property variability.
- To develop a predictive model for the mechanical properties and variability of designed recyclate composites.
- To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed design in enhancing the performance and reliability of recycled plastics.
Main Methods:
- A brick-and-mortar design concept using stiff recycled plastic platelets (bricks) in a soft virgin polymer matrix (mortar).
- Development of an uncertainty-aware tension-shear-chain model incorporating Monte Carlo simulations and stochastic parameters.
- Experimental validation using nacre-inspired composites of recycled high-density polyethylene (rHDPE) and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS).
Main Results:
- The developed model accurately predicted the effective modulus, strength, and property variability of the composites.
- Experimental results confirmed significant suppression of mechanical property variability in the fabricated composites.
- A case study on HDPE stretch film showed up to 93% reduction in modulus variability and 68% in strain variability.
Conclusions:
- The brick-and-mortar design strategy effectively suppresses variability in recycled plastics, transforming heterogeneous materials into robust products.
- This approach enables the substitution of virgin plastics with recyclates in demanding applications.
- The findings support circular design strategies and promote broader industrial adoption of recycled polymers.
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