Data from: Time-resolved, in situ MRI and NMR of polydiketoenamine (PDK) acidolysis

Moving toward a circular plastics economy is a vital aspect of global
resource management. Chemical recycling of plastics ensures high-value
monomers can be recovered from depolymerized plastic waste, thus enabling
circular manufacturing. However, to increase chemical recycling throughput
in materials recovery facilities, the present understanding of polymer
transport, diffusion, swelling, and heterogeneous deconstruction kinetics
must be systematized to allow industrial-scale process design, spanning
molecular to macroscopic regimes. To develop a framework for designing
depolymerization processes, we examined acidolysis of circular
polydiketoenamine (PDK) elastomers. We employed magnetic resonance to
monitor spatially resolved observables in situ, then evaluated these data
with a fractal method that treats nonlinear depolymerization kinetics.
This approach delineated the roles played by network architecture and
reaction medium on depolymerization outcomes, yielding parameters that
facilitate comparisons between bulk processes. These streamlined methods
to investigate polymer hydrolysis kinetics portend a general strategy for
implementing chemical recycling on an industrial scale.