Sustainable and recyclable polymer coloring system via size-tunable, pigment-encapsulated silica microspheres: enabling circular economy of plastics

2026/01/01 by Hirohisa Iwabayashi, Kenji Okada, Arisa Fukatsu +2 · 1 voice
Materials Science · Chemistry · #Polymer Nanocomposites and Properties #Advanced Polymer Synthesis and Characterization #Mesoporous Materials and Catalysis

paper · doi:10.1039/d6gc02002j

Abstract

A “recyclable-by-design” platform using size-coded, pigment-embedded silica microspheres enables high-purity polymer recovery and multi-color sorting via mild dissolution and sieving, preventing plastic downcycling for a true circular economy.

Citations

• Mechanical and chemical recycling of solid plastic waste
• Recycling and recovery routes of plastic solid waste (PSW): A review

Discussions

• New Paper in #𝐆𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐧𝐂𝐡𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐲 ➡️ 𝐒𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐲𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐩𝐨𝐥𝐲𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦 𝐯𝐢𝐚 𝐬𝐢𝐳𝐞-𝐭𝐮𝐧𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞, 𝐩𝐢𝐠𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭-𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐚𝐩� [bsky, 7 points, 0 comments]

Related

• Bioinspired Carbonized Polymer Microspheres for Full-Color Whispering Gallery Mode Emission for White Light Emission, Unclonable Anticounterfeiting, and Chemical Sensing Applications
• Rainbows in a bottle: Realizing microoptic effects by polymerizable multiple emulsion particle design
• Bio-based plastics in a circular economy: A review of recovery pathways and implications for product design
• Computations Meet Experiments to Advance the Enzymatic Depolymerization of Plastics One Atom at a Time
• A new process with zero emissions for truly biodegradable plastics