03/26/2025
By Protitee Paromita
Date: Wednesday, April 9, 2025
Time: 11 a.m - 1 p.m.
Location: Mark and Elisia Saab Emerging Technologies and Innovation Center (ETIC) 245
Committee:
Advisor: Dr. Hsi-Wu Wong, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Associate Chair for Graduate Studies, Associate Director Center for Energy Innovation, Chemical Engineering, UMass Lowell
Committee Members:
Nese Orbey, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies - Prospective Students, Chemical Engineering, UMass Lowell
Wan-Ting (Grace) Chen, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Plastics Engineering, UMass Lowell
Abstract:
Plastics pose a large hurdle in promoting circular economy due to challenges of recycling. This problem is further aggravated by the wide use of multilayered plastic films (MLPFs) for packaging, which cannot be recycled efficiently by conventional techniques. This study aims to employ acidolysis with acetic acid to delaminate MLPFs. Heat sealing of film edges was first employed to lower the number of sides exposed to the acid for studying diffusion mechanism. Films without heat-sealing treatment were found to have the shortest delamination time, while films with edges sealed were found to be significantly more difficult to delaminate, suggesting the primary delamination mechanism being edge diffusion through the interfaces between the layers of two MLPFs tested. Following this discovery, parametric studies on the effects of perforation, temperature, and agitation speeds were conducted. A semi-empirical model was developed to describe the parametric effects of the delamination process. The model is capable of providing a robust representation of the two MLPFs tested at a wide range of experimental conditions, demonstrating that the semi-empirical model developed could be extended to other MLPFs of similar structures.