Vapor-Phase Dicarboxylic Acids and Anhydrides Drive Depolymerization of Polyurethanes

Polyurethane (PU) is the sixth most used plastic in the world. Because many PU derived materials are thermosets and the monomers are valuable, chemical recycling to recover the polyol component is the most viable pathway to utilizing postconsumer PU waste in a closed-loop fashion. Acidolysis is an effective method to recover polyol from PU waste. Previous studies of PU acidolysis rely on the use of dicarboxylic acid (DCA) in high temperature reactions (>200 °C) in the liquid phase and result in unwanted byproducts, high energy consumption, complex separations of excess organic acid, and an overall process that is difficult to scale up. In this work, we demonstrate selective PU acidolysis with DCA vapor to release polyol at temperatures below the melting points of the DCAs (<150 °C). Notably, acidolysis with DCA vapor adheres to the principles of green chemistry and prevents in part esterification of the polyol product, eliminating the need for additional hydrolysis/processing to obtain the desired product. The methodology was successfully applied to a commercial PU foam (PUF) postconsumer waste.

Polyurethane Foam Chemical Recycling: Fast Acidolysis with Maleic Acid and Full Recovery of Polyol

Chemical recycling of polyurethane (PU) waste is essential to displace the need for virgin polyol production and enable sustainable PU production. Currently, less than 20% of PU waste is downcycled through rebinding to lower value products than the original PU. Chemical recycling of PU waste often requires significant input of materials like solvents and slow reaction rates. Here, we report the fast (<10 min) and solvent-free acidolysis of a model toluene diisocyanate (TDI)-based flexible polyurethane foam (PUF) at <200 °C using maleic acid (MA) with a recovery of recycled polyol (repolyol) in 95% isolated yield. After workup (hydrolysis of repolyl ester and separations), the repolyol exhibits favorable physical properties that are comparable to the virgin polyol; these include 54.1 mg KOH/g OH number and 624 cSt viscosity. Overall, 80% by weight of the input PUF is isolated into two clean-cut fractions containing the repolyol and toluene diamine (TDA). Finally, end-of-life (EOL) mattress PUF waste is recycled successfully with high recovery of repolyol using MA acidolysis. The solvent-free and fast acidolysis with MA demonstrated in this work with both model and EOL PUF provides a potential pathway for sustainable and closed-loop PU production.

Dynamics of single rising bubbles in neutrally buoyant liquid-solid suspensions

We experimentally investigate the effect of particles on the dynamics of a gas bubble rising in a liquid-solid suspension while the particles are equally sized and neutrally buoyant. Using the Stokes number as a universal scale, we show that when a bubble rises through a suspension characterized by a low Stokes number (in our case, small particles), it will hardly collide with the particles and will experience the suspension as a pseudoclear liquid. On the other hand, when the Stokes number is high (large particles), the high particle inertia leads to direct collisions with the bubble. In that case, Newton's collision rule applies, and direct exchange of momentum and energy between the bubble and the particles occurs. We present a simple theory that describes the underlying mechanism determining the terminal bubble velocity.

Comparison of the types of child utterances mothers expand in children with language delays and with Down's syndrome

Sixteen children with language delays and their mothers were studied to identify the types of child utterances mothers were most likely to expand. Eight of these children had Down's syndrome (DS), while the other eight were pairwise-matched for mean length of utterance (MLU) and did not have DS, but were language delayed. Twenty-minute mother-child free-play sessions were videotaped and transcribed. Trained observers coded utterances for child intelligibility, child utterance length, adult expansions and adult non-expansions. Sequential analysis results indicated that mothers of children with DS were more likely to expand partially intelligible multi-word utterances than to expand fully intelligible multi-word utterances. The opposite pattern occurred in the dyads without DS. Single-word utterances were least likely to be expanded in both groups. The implications of the results for language intervention and future research are discussed.

Mothers' lexicon of internal state words in speech to children with Down syndrome and to nonhandicapped children at mealtime

This study examines internal state words in mothers' speech to children with Down syndrome, and the relation between the use of internal state words and the children's levels of social-adaptive, communicative, and linguistic functioning. Results indicate qualitative differences in mothers' use of internal state words to children with children Down syndrome, compared with a sample of maternal speech to nonhandicapped children who were matched on the Vineland scales for their level of adaptive functioning. Differences include use of fewer internal state words overall to children with Down syndrome, and different kinds of internal state words: more words referring to physiological states, and fewer words referring either to affect or to cognition. In general, child Mean Length of Utterance (MLU) was associated with the pattern of inner state words used by mothers, whereas no associations were found between children's social-adaptive competence and maternal input. Even when controlling for child MLU, there were, however, some qualitative differences in the inner state lexicons used to children with Down syndrome. Results suggest that speech to children with Down syndrome that is calibrated to their MLU may underestimate their competence in domains other than grammar.