WISELY - NeW chemIstries for the deSign of rEcyclable poLYmers

WISELY - NeW chemIstries for the deSign of rEcyclable poLYmers

11/08/2026 Financement de l'Union européenne

WISELY - NeW chemIstries for the deSign of rEcyclable poLYmers

Polymers, (Macro)Molecular Synthesis, Dynamic Covalent Chemistry, Recycling, Advanced Characterization

PRISM programme

The PRISM (PhD Research Programme for International Training in Sustainable Soft Matter) programme has launched its first call for applications, offering up to 14 fully funded PhD fellowships starting from 1 March 2027 at Paris Sciences & Lettres (PSL) University. The programme trains researchers to address ecological transition challenges through sustainable soft matter science, with projects focused on eco-friendly chemical processes, circular economy, renewable energies, and carbon capture, storage, and valorisation. Co-funded by the European Union under Horizon Europe MSCA COFUND (Grant Agreement 101261637) and partner institutions, PRISM provides interdisciplinary, international, and intersectoral training, including mobility opportunities, secondments, and courses in sustainability, innovation, entrepreneurship, career development, and transferable skills.

The PhD project

The C3M laboratory is internationally recognized for its expertise in designing, synthesizing, and studying recyclable and/or self-healing materials. [1-4] Recently, the laboratory developed new additives that enable the recycling and upcycling of polyolefins and their blends, including post-consumer waste, through reactive processing. [5,6] The additives are triazine azides that decompose to form triplet nitrenes at typical polymer processing temperatures. These nitrenes can graft onto organic polymers, such as polyolefins and polyesters, and also oligomerize to form mechanically reversible polyazane crosslinking sites.[5] This allows for the creation of polymers with new properties, such as high-temperature creep resistance and adhesion between incompatible polymers, as well as improved properties, such as increased ductility and mechanical strength in polyolefin blends.

Through the "New Chemistries for the Design of Recyclable Polymers" (WISELY) project, we aim to develop new mechanically reversible chemical groups that will make thermoplastics, thermosets, and plastic blends more recyclable and easier to process.

The project WISELY will focus in a first stage on synthesizing and characterizing (using 1H, 13C, 15N, and 2D NMR, as well as mass spectrometry, among other techniques) new functional groups that incorporate mechanically reversible chemical bonds.

These new links will then be incorporated into various polymer matrices (thermoplastics and thermosets) during polymer synthesis or through reactive processing of commercial polymers. Various types of polymer matrices (polyesters, polyolefins, polyurethanes, polystyrene, poly(meth)acrylates, etc.) will be tested. The physicochemical, thermomechanical, and tensile properties of these new materials will be studied in detail, notably using TGA, DSC, SEC, DMA, TEM, SEM, and tensile testing. The processability and recyclability of these materials will also be investigated. In particular, the linear and non-linear rheology of the materials will be thoroughly investigated in collaboration with the group of Prof. Evelyne van Ruymbeke at the Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain) in Belgium. Research secondments will be conducted in the group of Prof. van Ruymbeke at UCLouvain for this purpose.

The project WISELY is expected to result in the publication of articles in leading scientific journals, oral presentations at national and international conferences, and potentially patent applications. Based on the results, industrial collaborations may be established to test these new chemistries in various application areas, such as construction, transportation, and adhesives.

References:

1. Cordier, P. et al., Self-healing and thermoreversible rubber from supramolecular assembly. Nature 2008, 451, 977. DOI: 10.1038/nature06669

2. Montarnal, D. et al., Silica-Like Malleable Materials from Permanent Organic Networks. Science 2011, 334, 965. DOI: 10.1126/science.1212648

3. Röttger, M. et al., High-performance vitrimers from commodity thermoplastics through dioxaborolane metathesis. Science 2017, 356, 62. DOI: 10.1126/science.aah5281

4. Van Zee, N. J., Nicolaÿ, R., Vitrimers: Permanently crosslinked polymers with dynamic network topology. Prog. Polym. Sci. 2020, 104, 101233. DOI: 10.1016/j.progpolymsci.2020.101233

5. Vialon, T. et al., Upcycling Polyolefin Blends into High-Performance Materials by Exploiting Azidotriazine Chemistry U