{"663031":{"#nid":"663031","#data":{"type":"event","title":"MS Defense by Natalie Duprez","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ENatalie Duprez\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nAdvisors: Prof. Luettgen and Prof. Yao will defense a master\u0026rsquo;s thesis entitled,\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nAqueously Degradable Poly(ethylene terephthalate) Films Containing a Latent Metal Oxide Reagent\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\non\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nTuesday, November 22 at 11:00 a.m. Paper Tricentennial Building Room 521\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nAbstract\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe widespread use of plastics, combined with their durability and persistence in the environment,\u0026nbsp;\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nhas created a tremendous environmental burden. Flexible packaging in particular, including films\u0026nbsp;\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nand polymer coatings, has a particularly low recycling rate. Substantial efforts have been made to\u0026nbsp;\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nreplace these typically single-use materials with biodegradable options, but high costs,\u0026nbsp;\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\ndifficulties with processing, and unsuitable mechanical properties often prevent their widespread\u0026nbsp;\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nuse. In this work, polyethylene terephthalate (PET), one of the most affordable and commonly used\u0026nbsp;\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nplastics available, is made to be degradable by the addition of CaO via melt-mixing. This allows\u0026nbsp;\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nthe PET to undergo alkaline hydrolysis upon exposure to water, ultimately converting to ethylene\u0026nbsp;\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nglycol and calcium terephthalate (CaTP), a salt of terephthalic acid. Due to the inert nature of\u0026nbsp;\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nCaO relative to other alkaline reagents, it may be mixed into PET and processed without hydrolyzing\u0026nbsp;\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nthe polymer chain, and the material degrades only in the presence of water. In this work, this\u0026nbsp;\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nlatent hydrolysis reaction is studied via the full and partial degradation of PET\/CaO composite\u0026nbsp;\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nfilms at different concentrations and temperatures. Testing and characterization of the samples\u0026nbsp;\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nverified that the alkaline reagent CaO does not degrade the PET during processing, but instead\u0026nbsp;\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nreduces thermal degradation. The films were seen to be able to hydrolyze completely in water,\u0026nbsp;\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nforming the expected CaTP product, given that there was adequate CaO to drive the reaction to\u0026nbsp;\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\ncompletion. Identification and observation of intermediates in the series of degradation reactions\u0026nbsp;\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nvalidated the proposed mechanism for latent degradation. Based on the proposed mechanism, a kinetic\u0026nbsp;\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nmodel was developed to predict the conversion of PET depending on key system parameters. This model\u0026nbsp;\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nwas shown to describe the behavior of the system and provide more of an understanding of how to\u0026nbsp;\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\ncontrol the reaction via formulation and degradation conditions. While films were used to study the\u0026nbsp;\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\ndegradation reaction, it was also shown that this composite may be applied as a coating to a paper\u0026nbsp;\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nsubstrate. This may be done to allow the coating to be more easily removed to recycle the paper. In\u0026nbsp;\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nfact, once adequate degradation was achieved, the polymer coating was easily removed, demonstrating\u0026nbsp;\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nthe potential benefits of using this composite material as a coating.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ECommittee\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\n\u0026bull; \u0026nbsp;Prof. Christopher Luettgen \u0026ndash; School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\n\u0026bull; \u0026nbsp;Prof. Donggang Yao \u0026ndash; School of Materials Science and Engineering\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\n\u0026bull; \u0026nbsp;Prof. Carson Meredith \u0026ndash; School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\n\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":"","field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Aqueously Degradable Poly(ethylene terephthalate) Films Containing a Latent Metal Oxide Reagent"}],"uid":"27707","created_gmt":"2022-11-09 17:51:37","changed_gmt":"2022-11-09 17:51:37","author":"Tatianna Richardson","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","field_event_time":{"event_time_start":"2022-11-22T11:00:00-05:00","event_time_end":"2022-11-22T13:00:00-05:00","event_time_end_last":"2022-11-22T13:00:00-05:00","gmt_time_start":"2022-11-22 16:00:00","gmt_time_end":"2022-11-22 18:00:00","gmt_time_end_last":"2022-11-22 18:00:00","rrule":null,"timezone":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"groups":[{"id":"221981","name":"Graduate Studies"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"111531","name":"ms defense"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[{"id":"1788","name":"Other\/Miscellaneous"}],"invited_audience":[{"id":"78761","name":"Faculty\/Staff"},{"id":"78771","name":"Public"},{"id":"78751","name":"Undergraduate students"}],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}