The Polymer Society of Korea

Abstract

Chemical recycling of polystyrene (PS), which recovers styrene monomers from waste PS, has been extensively explored as a route toward a closed-loop PS life cycle. However, the depolymerization process typically yields a mixture of styrene and styrene-like impurities due to limited selectivity, which interferes with efficient repolymerization into high-molecular-weight PS. To address this challenge, we introduced a multifunctional crosslinker capable of inducing extremely high molecular weights. Interestingly, instead of suppressing the impurities, we utilized them as porogens through exchange with a non-solvent, inducing a phase separation. The resulting network was applied as a Li-ion battery separator, and it showed comparable electrochemical performance with a commercial separator.