Seminar: Recycling Thermoset Waste via Dynamic Chemistry

Our Centre invites you to attend Distinguished Professor Ica Manas-Zloczower’s seminar ‘Towards a Circular Carbon Economy: Recycling Thermoset Waste via Dynamic Chemistry’ at 10:30am on Monday 17 March 2025. The seminar will be held at UNSW Sydney, and online via Zoom for those joining us from interstate.

Join us for this free event – everyone is welcome!

Add this event to your calendar here: ARC COE-CSI Seminar_ Ica Manas-Zloczower

Abstract: Vitrimerization is a newly developed concept to convert permanent carbon-rich polymer crosslinked thermoset networks into covalent adaptable networks: vitrimers. Vitrimerization relies on designing a strategy to induce re-formability and healing in permanent chemically crosslinked polymer networks by using exchangeable chemical bonds that will lead to dynamic crosslinked networks. Thermosets can be transformed into vitrimers through a mechanochemical process, which enables the formation of exchangeable linkages precursors via ball milling the permanent crosslinked network with appropriate catalysts, including carbon(-supported) catalysts, and in some cases a feedstock of external hydroxyl groups. These vitrimerized materials undergo topology rearrangement at elevated temperatures through associative mechanisms, preserving the density of crosslinks. In this presentation, we illustrate the use of vitrimerization for recycling different thermoset systems with potential applications in various manufacturing sectors. The vitrimerization approach is a low-cost, eco-friendly and scalable method that can be effectively implemented to address current challenges in recycling thermoset waste.

Biography: Ica Manas-Zloczower is the Thomas W. and Nancy P. Seitz Professor of Advanced Materials and Energy in the Department of Macromolecular Science and Engineering and the Distinguished University Professor at Case Western Reserve University. She received BS and MS degrees in Chemical Engineering from Polytechnic Institute Jassy, Romania and a Doctor of Science in Chemical Engineering from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. She was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Minnesota.

Professor Manas-Zloczower is the recipient of the 2017 SPE Fred E. Schwab Education Award and the 2012 George S. Whitby Award for Distinguished Teaching and Research awarded by American Chemical Society Rubber Division. She was elected and served as the President of the International Polymer Processing Society in 2011-2013. She is also a fellow of the Society of Plastics Engineers and was elected to the Board of Directors of Extrusion Division of the Society of Plastics Engineers in May 2000. She was the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Polymer Engineering 1999-2014 and serves on the Book Advisory Board for Hanser publisher.

Professor Manas-Zloczower’s research accomplishments have been recognized through more than 95 plenary, keynote and invited lectures at national and international conferences and more than 100 invited seminars at various companies and universities worldwide. She has also chaired several sessions at national and international meetings. She presented the 2014 and 2017 Plenary Technical Lecture for the Society of Plastics Engineers.

She has advised 37 Ph.D. students, 30 M.S. students, 20 post-docs, 4 Ph.D. exchange students and a large number of undergraduate students.

Professor Manas-Zloczower has more than 225 publications in peer-reviewed journals, more than 100 published conference proceedings, and a number of book chapters and patents. She is the editor of the 2009 book “Mixing and Compounding of Polymers” published by Hanser.

Professor Manas-Zloczower research is focusing on the fundamental understanding of mixing phenomena and thereof applications to develop advanced materials with tailored properties. Research is aimed to develop strategies for thermoset recycling, to explore the use of naturally derived and other biobased materials for advanced composites in renewable energy applications, to develop high performance materials and model their properties, to study the structure and micromechanics of fine particle clusters and interfacial engineering strategies for advanced materials processing, to explore high internal phase emulsion templating technologies for open-pore structure materials.