Recycling ABS from WEEE with peroxo- modified surface of titanium dioxide particles: alteration on antistatic and degradation properties

Abstract

Abstract The increasing concern about plastic disposal and its impact on the environment has led to the necessity to reuse these materials, completing their life cycle within the circular economy mentality: production, use, recycling, and reuse. One of the residues that has caused great concern is the so-called waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). The reintroduction of a recycled material back into the market requires some type of modification since the recycling process lightly alters the general properties of those materials. In this work, we studied the recycling of ABS - one of the polymers most found in waste electrical and electronic equipment - and its modification through commercial titanium dioxide (TiO2) and modified with peroxide groups (TiO2 – OPM). The TiO2 – OPM have interesting electrical properties due to their lower band gap values, which results in them being good candidates for the modification of recycled polymers for WEEE applications. For this, different percentages of particles were incorporated into ABS from the electro-electronic industry. Aspects of degradation, rheology, and antistatic were analyzed. A good interaction between the particle and polymer is observed, especially for those modified with the peroxo group. Nevertheless, it is observed that this modification promotes a reduction in the initiation of exothermic reactions for the butadiene phase, which seems to be a positive aspect because it preserves the acrylonitrile-styrene phase. The interaction is observed rheologically, indicating the formation of a percolated network that favors antistatic characteristics, even with a reduced amount of TiO2-OPM. This work presents a framework for the development of more sustainable materials with concepts of a circular production system.