dc.contributor.author	Xu, Zhen	en
dc.contributor.committeechair	Liu, Guoliang	en
dc.contributor.committeemember	Madsen, Louis A.	en
dc.contributor.committeemember	Long, Timothy E.	en
dc.contributor.committeemember	Cheng, Shengfeng	en
dc.contributor.department	Chemistry	en
dc.date.accessioned	2022-12-09T09:00:14Z	en
dc.date.available	2022-12-09T09:00:14Z	en
dc.date.issued	2022-12-08	en
dc.description.abstractgeneral	Enhancing and recycling plastic are two important focuses in plastics research. In this dissertation, enhancing the property of polyetherimide (PEI) is first discussed, and two methods are introduced. Later, a new recycling strategy, the degradation-upcycling (Deg-Up) strategy, is presented. The potential of Deg-Up is evaluated on three plastics: polystyrene (PS), polyethylene (PE), and polypropylene (PP). These plastics serve broad applications in daily life, such as Styrofoam, food containers, shopping bags, garden decorations, and furniture. PEI, a powerful plastic resilient to high temperature and strength, is broadly used in aerospace, defense technology, space exploration, and transportation. However, PEI can only be processed at high temperatures, and PEI films can be easily dissolved or compromised in many solvents, such as solmethine, chloroform, and furanidin. Water is not permeable in PEI, and therefore, it is strongly demanded to modify the PEI structure, giving PEI new and improved properties for water filtration and purification. We have investigated two methods for modifying PEI. Influencers affecting the PEI film's performance are also studied. Plastic upcycling, which converts low-value wastes to high-value chemical products, is a vital technology that mitigates the environmental crisis and the plastic recycling problem. However, effective plastic upcycling improving waste value with good selectivity toward products with ten-fold or even greater value is uncommon due to the lack of upcycling theories/methodologies. This dissertation presents a new upcycling strategy; the degradation-upcycling strategy (Deg-Up) comprises degradation reactions yielding preliminary chemicals and upcycling reactions converting the preliminary chemicals to desired high-value products. Based on the Deg-Up strategy, PS is converted to fragrances and drug precursors, and PE and PP are Deg-Up to fats and soaps. The economic and industrial possibilities are also discussed through a preliminary industrial design and an economic analysis.	en
dc.description.degree	Doctor of Philosophy	en
dc.format.medium	ETD	en
dc.identifier.other	vt_gsexam:35655	en
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10919/112830	en
dc.language.iso	en	en
dc.publisher	Virginia Tech	en
dc.rights	In Copyright	en
dc.rights.uri	http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/	en
dc.subject	Polyetherimide	en
dc.subject	polystyrene	en
dc.subject	polyethylene	en
dc.subject	polypropylene	en
dc.subject	modification	en
dc.subject	degradation	en
dc.subject	upcycling	en
dc.title	Modification and Upcycling of Polyetherimide, Polystyrene, Polyethylene, and Polypropylene	en
dc.type	Dissertation	en
thesis.degree.discipline	Chemistry	en
thesis.degree.grantor	Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University	en
thesis.degree.level	doctoral	en
thesis.degree.name	Doctor of Philosophy	en

Modification and Upcycling of Polyetherimide, Polystyrene, Polyethylene, and Polypropylene

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