Sustainable polymer chemistry of high-performance materials by mechanochemistry

Chapter 1 gives an overview of mechanochemistry and its potential for more environmentally friendly and sustainable chemistry compared to traditional approaches. It also discusses polymer mechanochemistry, and the potential for it to contribute to a sustainable polymer future. <br><br>Chapter 2 describes the synthesis of monobenzoxazines by mechanochemistry using twin-screw extrusion, a continuous method of mechanochemistry, which aimed to further expand and enhance the knowledge and understanding of the way in which these reactions occur by mechanochemistry.

The batch reaction process was optimised to gain a set of reactions that could be scaled directly to twin-screw extrusion (TSE). This was then translated and scaled to extrusion. Overall, both batch and TSE monobenzoxazine synthesis achieved 91% conversion when optimised and TSE offered an alternative approach that enabled easy scaling. <br><br>Chapter 3 investigates mechanochemical depolymerisation, which seeks to take advantage of mechanochemical techniques to achieve chemical recycling.