In the context of a global ecological and resource crisis, the development of more environmentally friendly technologies becomes increasingly important with a gradual transition of industry to fully renewable materials. In this project, we propose new solvents for the dissolution of synthetic materials, such as nylon and kevlar, that can stimulate the recycling of textile waste and give new life to these materials as textile quality fibres. Our work will demonstrate that it is possible to dissolve nylon and to evaluate the structure and properties of its molecules in solutions of new ionic liquids developed at the Department of Chemistry. We expect that our approach can be extended to other plastics that do not dissolve in common solvents. This recycling process can convert post-customer materials into various shapes such as fibres or films. These materials acquire unsurpassed properties and renewability, and help solving environmental problems.

2024

2028