Each year, millions of tires end up in landfills, contributing to a growing environmental crisis. In 2021 alone, more than 274 million tires were discarded in the United States, with nearly 20 percent ending up in landfills. The accumulation of waste tires presents serious challenges—not only in terms of space but also through environmental risks like chemical leaching and the potential for spontaneous fires. Although pyrolysis, a widely used rubber recycling process involving high-temperature decomposition, is common, it produces toxic byproducts such as benzene and dioxins, which pose health and environmental hazards.
A recently published study in Nature, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and led by Dr. Aleksandr Zhukhovitskiy of UNC-Chapel Hill, introduces a groundbreaking chemical approach to rubber recycling. Titled Deconstruction of Rubber via C-H Amination and Aza-Cope Rearrangement, the study presents a new two-step process that transforms used rubber into valuable chemical building blocks for epoxy resins, offering a safer and more sustainable alternative to traditional methods.
Rubber—both natural and synthetic, like the kind found in tires—is made up of complex polymer networks cross-linked into a durable, flexible structure. This cross-linking, while essential for performance, also makes rubber notoriously difficult to recycle. Current techniques focus on either breaking sulfur cross-links (de-vulcanization), which can compromise the material’s strength, or using oxidative and catalytic methods to cleave polymer backbones, often resulting in low-value byproducts. Neither approach has proven ideal for large-scale or efficient recycling.
“We wanted to find a way to break down rubber into functional materials that still retain value, even as a mixture,” said Dr. Zhukhovitskiy, the study’s lead author.
To achieve this, the research team developed a sulfur diimide reagent that introduces amine groups into specific sites on the polymer chains. This chemical step prepares the material for a backbone rearrangement that breaks down the rubber into soluble, amine-functionalized fragments. These materials can then serve as feedstock for creating epoxy resins.
The results were impressive. In trials with a model polymer, the researchers reduced the material’s molecular weight from 58,100 g/mol to just 400 g/mol. When applied to actual used rubber, the method completed the breakdown in only six hours, converting it into a usable, amine-rich material for producing epoxy-based products.
Unlike traditional methods that require extreme heat or expensive catalysts, this new process works under mild conditions (between 35°C and 50°C) and in aqueous environments, making it both environmentally friendly and cost-effective.
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Epoxy resins, widely used in adhesives, coatings, and composite materials, are typically derived from petroleum-based chemicals like bisphenol A. The new approach shows that amine-modified poly-dienes, created from recycled rubber, can produce epoxy resins with mechanical strength comparable to commercially available options.
“It’s remarkable how a simple sequence of organic reactions can take on stubborn carbon–carbon bonds and turn old rubber into potentially valuable materials,” said Maxim Ratushnyy, a co-author and former postdoctoral scholar at UNC-Chapel Hill.
The study also assessed the environmental footprint of the new method using the Environmental Impact Factor (E-factor), which measures the amount of waste generated per unit of product. While the total E-factor, including solvents, was relatively high, the core process without solvent use showed a much lower E-factor—highlighting potential for improvement.
“We’re already working on optimizing the process by exploring greener solvent systems and alternative conditions to minimize waste,” said Dr. Geoff Lewis of the University of Michigan’s Center for Sustainable Systems, who contributed to the environmental assessment.
This innovative work not only advances rubber recycling but also lays the foundation for more sustainable materials science. By transforming waste into valuable industrial components, the study represents a major step forward in addressing one of the most persistent challenges in environmental sustainability.
Nebitno
