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To address the challenges associated with the difficult recycling of fluorinated specialty materials and the subpar performance of recycled products, a molecular reconstruction strategy of oxidative degradation, fluorination addition is reported, and end-group transformation, which upcycled waste fluororubber into high-performance, chemically awakenable amino-terminated low-molecular-weight fluoropolymer (ATLF-Boc). Leveraging the chemical properties of the vinylidene fluoride structure in the waste fluororubber, carboxyl-terminated low-molecular-weight fluoropolymer (CTLF) with controlled molecular weight and end-group content are synthesized. Further, the whole chain is structurally strengthened at the molecular scale to achieve higher fluorine content and thermal stability, and saturated carboxyl-terminated low-molecular-weight fluoropolymer (SCTLF) is synthesized. Subsequently, to balance high reactivity and stable storage, high-performance ATLF-Boc is synthesized, realizing the upcycling of waste fluororubber. After upcycling, the awakened ATLF exhibits a high fluorine content (66.95%), and the cured ATLF shows the regulation of surface hydrophilicity and hydrophobicity (between 43° and 114°), a high tensile strength of 13.3 MPa, an excellent thermal stability (T10% = 359 °C). In this study, a novel solution for the upcycling of waste fluororubbers for fabricating functional materials is offered, which is of great significance in the field of fluorinated specialty materials.
Li et al. (Wed,) studied this question.