Women in Polymer Science and Technology: Polymers Recycling

A special issue of Polymers (ISSN 2073-4360).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (26 November 2021) | Viewed by 5956

Special Issue Editors


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Grupo de Investigación Polímeros Caracterización y Aplicaciones, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, 28006 Madrid, Spain
Interests: plastics recycling; biopolymers; nanocomposites
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Since the very beginning of the history of science, on top of playing a pivotal role in the lives and achievements of prominent scientists, women themselves have made significant, outstanding contributions to the advancement of science, as well as that of technology, although his work has not always been recognized. Nowadays, it is clear that significant gender differences still persist in academia. We believe that the entire scientific community should work together to achieve the total eradication of these differences, and it is in this vein that this project "Women in Polymer Science and Technology" is being launched by Polymers.

As a part of this project, this Special Issue, titled “Women in Polymer Science and Technology: Polymer and biopolymers recycling”, encourages women and men to work together to fight inequalities faced by women in science.

In this Special Issue, we would like to put together a collection of powerful papers to provide an overview of this interesting research topic focused on more sustainable end-of-life scenarios for polymers, including traditional polymers based on non renewable resources, bio-based and biodegradable-polymers. Topics of interest for publication in this Special Issue include, but are not limited to:

  • Biobased and biodegradable polymers
  • Sorting
  • Mechanical recycling
  • Chemical recycling
  • Thermomechanical degradation
  • Molten processing
  • Additives and fillers
  • Blending and compatibilization
  • New chemical process development
  • Pyrolysis
  • New combustion processes
  • Energy recovery
  • Composting
  • Biodegradation

Considering your already significant contribution to polymer science and technology, we would like to cordially invite you to submit an article to this Special Issue.

The only requirement is that either the first or the corresponding author is a woman.

Dr. Marina Patricia Arrieta Dillon
Prof. Dr. María Ulagares de la Orden
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Polymers is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Published Papers (1 paper)

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22 pages, 3591 KiB  
Article
Evaluation of the Technical Viability of Distributed Mechanical Recycling of PLA 3D Printing Wastes
by Freddys R. Beltrán, Marina P. Arrieta, Eduardo Moreno, Gerald Gaspar, Luisa M. Muneta, Ruth Carrasco-Gallego, Susana Yáñez, David Hidalgo-Carvajal, María U. de la Orden and Joaquín Martínez Urreaga
Polymers 2021, 13(8), 1247; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/polym13081247 - 12 Apr 2021
Cited by 47 | Viewed by 5034
Abstract
3D printing PLA wastes were recovered from a well-known reference grade and from different sources. The recovered wastes were subjected to an energic washing step and then reprocessed into films by melt-extrusion, followed by compression molding to simulate the industrial processing conditions. The [...] Read more.
3D printing PLA wastes were recovered from a well-known reference grade and from different sources. The recovered wastes were subjected to an energic washing step and then reprocessed into films by melt-extrusion, followed by compression molding to simulate the industrial processing conditions. The obtained materials were characterized and the optical, structural, thermal and crystallization behavior are reported. The mechanical recycling process leads to an increase of the crystallinity and a decrease of the intrinsic viscosity of the formulations, particularly in the sample based on blends of different 3D-PLA wastes. Moreover, the obtained films were disintegrated under composting conditions in less than one month and it was observed that recycled materials degrade somewhat faster than the starting 3D-PLA filament, as a consequence of the presence of shorter polymer chains. Finally, to increase the molecular weight of the recycled materials, the 3D-PLA wastes were submitted to a solid-state polymerization process at 110, 120, and 130 °C, observing that the recycled 3D-wastes materials based on a well-known reference grade experiences an improvement of the intrinsic viscosity, while that coming from different sources showed no significant changes. Thus, the results show that 3D printing PLA products provides an ideal environment for the implementation of distributed recycling program, in which wastes coming from well-known PLA grades can successfully be processed in films with good overall performance. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Women in Polymer Science and Technology: Polymers Recycling)
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