The science of what CO₂ can do

Most people associate carbon dioxide with pollutants since CO₂ emissions come from the burning of fossil fuels. Eagan and his team are sequestering the polluting gas and converting it to useful, biodegradable polymers that can be used in numerous applications such as wind turbines, vehicles, adhesives and films.

“I want to reverse the process so that we are taking CO₂ and putting it back into something, and in this case, polymers and plastics,” says Eagan. “If we put more CO₂ into the plastic than emitted, we can make the process carbon negative, which a very exciting possibility. In this new world, every day would be Earth Day.”

Eagan’s research began in 2019 and led to the creation of a research team of 10 graduate and undergraduate students at The University of Akron, working together in a lab in the School of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering’s Goodyear Polymer Center.

A team of researchers, led by UA’s Dr. James Eagan, are studying sustainability with a focus on where plastic comes from and where it ends up. Learn about their research making plastics from carbon dioxide (CO₂), leading to a new, biodegradable plastic.

In addition to the benefit of using repurposed CO₂ to make plastic, by incorporating CO₂ the research group is making traditional olefin plastics degradable, which has never been observed before. They work with traditional monomers (the small, building blocks of polymers) used in commercial plastics called olefins. Olefins are cheap and abundant, but typically form polymers that are not degradable. Eagan’s group discovered a synthetic pathway for getting CO₂ into the polyolefin chain, providing a site for biodegradation, by using a special combination of catalysts. Achieving this reaction with traditional olefin monomers is a critical step. Before this, researchers had to use a different kind of monomers like epoxides or alkynes which require a significant amount of energy to manufacture. This energy comes with the burden of increased emissions, ultimately limiting the environmental benefit they may have and increasing costs.

Better bioplastics

“Nature solved how to manage CO₂ eons ago with photosynthesis,” says Eagan. “Any farmer will tell you that growing plants takes a lot of fresh water, land, time, sunshine, fertilizer and energy. It is not always pragmatic to meet the demand of 300 million tons of plastic every year from plants alone. Direct utilization of CO₂ in chemical reactions is a complementary strategy, which avoids many of these requirements.”

Bioplastics, which are plastic materials produced from renewable biomass sources like what Eagan’s lab is working on, also only define where the material came from, not necessarily how it ends up.

“Bioplastic does not mean biodegradable!” Eagan continues. “Our method both emulates nature’s photosynthesis and helps the products break down in the environment.”

Impact and applications

Many polyurethanes, such as foam cushions or protective coatings, are made from CO₂, however, these materials require an energy-intensive and expensive comonomer. According to Eagan’s predictions, it will be another decade before common plastics made directly from CO₂ begin to take a sizable commercial hold. Industry is a long way out from producing this material on the thousands of tons per year scale that most manufacturers operate on. As a result, niche applications, like household adhesives and films, are a likely starting point.

Also, finding more earth-friendly ways to scale up production of CO₂ is going to be a critical need, as the biggest supplier of CO₂ is the burning fossil fuels which then leads to becoming a discarded waste product. Researchers will have to determine how we sustainably harvest CO₂ in massive amounts. Eagan’s research has clearly demonstrated CO₂’s value as feedstock for making desirable polymers.

The long-term impact when industry does take hold of this science and technology is significant.

“Many people feel powerless in the face of CO₂ emissions and their long-term effects,” says Eagan. “The development industries that sequester CO₂ can give hope to reversing the pollution from the industrial revolution. Polymers are essential materials for our energy, healthcare, and environmental management. Tailoring the material performance has driven polymer scientists for decades, but now there is a shift to optimizing the sustainability of these materials. By building polymers from CO₂ we have a real chance at a future with negative carbon emissions!”

Related Content:

• Learn more about Dr. James Eagan and his research.
• Read the journal article in ACS Macro Letters that describes some of Eagan’s research.
• Read the article we published last year announcing a U.S. Department of Energy grant that funded Eagan’s work.

Media contact: Cristine Boyd, 330-972-6476 or cboyd@uakron.edu.