Research
Research
Plastic waste mismanagement is an urgent problem contributing to the deterioration of the environment. Recycling plastic is a potentially sustainable option to manage the plastic waste streams as opposed to incineration which leads to the emission of greenhouse gas CO2 and other harmful gasses.
The most common mechanical plastic recycling process consists of melting down and reshaping the material. For polyolefins, which the majority of plastic waste consists of, this process downgrades the material properties. A different approach is to chemically recycle the plastic, which breaks the polymers down to their building blocks, which can in turn be used to create new, higher quality polymers.
In this project, we are developing a new chemical recycling method for polyolefins. This method makes use of mechanochemistry to recycle polymers into their monomers. The driving force behind the depolymerization is the impact from grinding spheres colliding which are agitated together with the polymer in a ball mill. In order to investigate the processes that occur inside the ball mill in operando, we will develop a special ball mill chamber to allow for the use of spectroscopic techniques such as Raman, diffuse reflectance spectroscopy and infrared spectroscopy in combination with the use of radical and spin trapping compounds.
CV
CV
2018-2021
Bachelor Chemistry at Utrecht University
2021-2024
Master Analytical Chemistry at Universiteit van Amsterdam and Vrije Universiteit (joint degree)
2023-2024
Master thesis at the Science Department of the Rijksmuseum
Title: Understanding the use of copper in Vermeer paintings: A comparison of Vermeer paintings and reconstructions of layered systems with reflectance spectroscopy and MAXRF