News Excerpt:

Researchers at IIT Madras, Columbia University and Colorado State University in the US have developed a technique to merge diverse plastics into strong and recyclable materials.

Key findings:

• The technique combines different types of plastics to create new composite plastics that are strong, reprocessable, and recyclable.
• The research, published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature, addresses the plastic waste crisis and holds the promise of transforming society's perception and management of plastic recycling.
• The team employed a specially designed universal dynamic crosslinker (UDC) to successfully blend usually incompatible plastics.
• The team has developed a process that can stitch the interface between immiscible phases and make the mechanical strength good, allowing for the recycling of mixed plastic waste.
• Through a process called "compatibilisation", one can make them blend without compromising their individual characteristics.

Issues with recycling of plastic:

• Plastic waste is made up of many different kinds of polymers, which do not mix easily.
• Recycling currently involves a lot of separation, which is time-consuming and inefficient.
• To recycle plastic mixtures effectively, different plastics must blend together without losing their unique properties.
• Reprocessing mixed plastic waste tends to be immiscible, meaning the material formed tends to be mechanically weak. 

Universal Dynamic Crosslinker (UDC):

• The design and development of several UDCs enable an optimal closed-loop upcycling path for immiscible multicomponent plastics.
• UDCs reactivate dead chains in the mixed plastics to dynamically crosslink them into compatibilized, grafted multiblock copolymers with superior properties and without the need for deconstruction or reconstruction.
• UDCs can be used for any polymer containing saturated C-H bonds, individually or in mixtures.
• The resulting upcycled materials can be used and reprocessed through multiple cycles and have enhanced performance over virgin plastics.
• The key barrier in the technique is cost.

Conclusion:

India currently has a plastic recycling rate of 13%, higher than the global average of 9%. However, certain technical obstacles are preventing further progress in plastic recycling. It is important to conduct adequate research on the technique of UDC, which can make the process more economical and viable for plastic recycling.