TY - JOUR A1 - Stolar, Tomislav A1 - Bayram, Dilara A1 - May, Anastasia A1 - Sundermann, Remie A1 - Prinz, Carsten A1 - Meyer, Klas A1 - Myxa, Anett A1 - Falkenhagen, Jana A1 - Emmerling, Franziska T1 - Selective mechanochemical conversion of post-consumer polyethylene terephthalate waste into hcp and fcu UiO-66 metal–organic frameworks N2 - Single-use plastics strongly contribute to plastic pollution, and less than 10% of plastic waste is recycled globally. Here, we present a selective mechanochemical protocol for converting post-consumer polyethylene terephthalate (PET) transparent bottles and coloured textile waste into the porous metal–organic framework (MOF) UiO-66 materials. We used time-resolved in situ (TRIS) synchrotron powder X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy to monitor the depolymerization of PET during ball milling. To convert disodium terephthalate to UiO-66, we developed base and base-free synthetic routes that lead to fcu and hcp UiO-66 phases, respectively, including the first ever synthesis of hcp UiO-66 by mechanochemistry. Our results demonstrate the potential of mechanochemistry to selectively access fcu and hcp UiO-66 phases using post-consumer PET waste. KW - Mechanochemistry PY - 2026 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-653958 DO - https://doi.org/10.1039/D4MR00126E SN - 2976-8683 SP - 1 EP - 8 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) AN - OPUS4-65395 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Stolar, Tomislav A1 - Alić, Jasna A1 - Casali, Lucia A1 - Gugin, Nikita A1 - Baláž, Matej A1 - Michalchuk, Adam A.L. A1 - Emmerling, Franziska ED - Stolar, Tomislav T1 - Mechanochemistry: Looking back and ahead N2 - Starting with the discovery of fire and the preparation of food in prehistoric times, mechanochemistry is the oldest form of chemistry that humans have controlled. Mechanochemical practices, such as grinding with a mortar and pestle, continued into the Middle Ages until dedicated scientific studies began in the 19th century. Since then,research in mechanochemistry has shown that many chemicalreactions can be performed via mechanical force without or with small amounts of solvent. Besides being time, material, and energy efficient, mechanochemical reactions often yield products that differ from those obtained in solution. Therefore, not only is mechanochemistry greener and more sustainable than conventional solution chemistry, but it also has the added value of providing new reactivity and selectivity. This is especially important today, when chemists need to invent high-performance materials, intermediates, and products with the use of sustainable feedstocks and develop environmental remediation pathways. At the same time, time-resolved in situ monitoring and computational modeling are necessary for addressing fundamental questions about the atomistic, molecular, and electronic nature of mechanochemical reactivity. Integrating digitalization, robotics, and artificial intelligence tools promises to increase the reproducibility and scalability of mechanochemical processes. Further evolution of mechanochemistry is expected to have a transformative effect on the chemical industry. KW - Mechanochemistry PY - 2026 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-653962 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chempr.2025.102880 SN - 2451-9294 SP - 1 EP - 27 PB - Elsevier BV AN - OPUS4-65396 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Stolar, Tomislav T1 - Sustainable mechanochemical reaction engineering: from molecular mechanisms to scalable technology N2 - In this talk, I will present about our quest to fundamentally understand mechanochemical reactions by in situ monitoring studies. Another of our interest is scaling up mechanochemistry. For example, we are now working on developing mechanochemical technology to enable a circular economy of plastics. T2 - Korea-Germany Symposium on Mechanochemistry CY - Jeonju, South Korea DA - 02.10.2024 KW - Mechanochemistry KW - Plastic recycling KW - Circular economy PY - 2024 AN - OPUS4-62110 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Stolar, Tomislav T1 - Mechanochemistry: fundamentals to application N2 - In the first part, I will talk about the role of mechanochemistry in prebiotic chemistry. For example, prebiotically plausible pathways to peptides from inactivated amino acids are unclear as most oligomerization approaches rely on thermodynamically disfavored reactions in solution. I will show how a combination of mineral surfaces and mechanochemical activation enables the oligomerization of amino acids to oligopeptides (Figure 1). In the second part, I will show how fundamental studies inspired to use mechanochemistry for the sustainable synthesis of commercially relevant compounds, in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.2 We developed a solvent-free thermo-mechanochemical approach for the direct coupling of carboxylic acids and amines, which avoids activators and additives. We applied our methodology for the quantitative synthesis of the active pharmaceutical ingredient moclobemide (Figure 2). T2 - Solutions in Chemistry Conference 2024 CY - Sveti Martin na Muri, Croatia DA - 15.11.2024 KW - Mechanochemistry KW - Plastic recycling KW - Circular economy PY - 2024 AN - OPUS4-62111 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Stolar, Tomislav T1 - Thermo mechanochemistry: merging heat and force for discovering new chemical transformations N2 - Mechanochemistry is a hot topic in chemistry, and the number of researchers from academia and industry joining the field is growing. Mechanical action drives chemical reactions forward independently of the solubility of reactants and drastically minimises solvent usage and waste production. Mechanochemistry also provides other advantages, such as faster reaction times, higher yields, altered selectivity, and access to products not obtainable by other methods. Furthermore, recent innovations in mechanochemistry enable conducting chemical reactions by combining force and heat in approach called thermo-mechanochemistry [1]. These conditions typically overcome high activation energies and access products not obtainable by mechanochemistry at ambient temperature conditions. In this talk, I will give an overview to this emerging topic and to our discoveries by thermo-mechanochemistry that include prebiotic peptide bond formation [2], synthesis of amide-based active pharmaceutical ingredient [3], condensation of diamondoid derivatives [4], and manipulation of polymorphic transition temperatures in organic molecular crystals [5]. T2 - Department Seminar at Newcastle University CY - Newcastle, UK DA - 15.09.2023 KW - Mechanochemistry PY - 2023 AN - OPUS4-62104 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Stolar, Tomislav T1 - Sustainable mechanochemical reaction engineering: from molecular mechanisms to scalable technology N2 - In this talk, I will present about our quest to fundamentally understand mechanochemical reactions by in situ monitoring studies. Another of our interest is scaling up mechanochemistry. For example, we are now working on developing mechanochemical technology to enable a circular economy of plastics. T2 - Hokkaido International Workshop on Mechanochemistry CY - Hokkaido, Japan DA - 29.09.2024 KW - Mechanochemistry KW - Plastic recycling KW - Circular economy PY - 2024 AN - OPUS4-62109 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Stolar, Tomislav T1 - Grinding away plastic waste: enabling the circular economy of plastics N2 - Single-use plastics are causing plastic pollution, and less than 10% of plastic waste gets recycled globally. Most of it ends up in landfills or is being incinerated in a highly unsustainable manner. Plastic waste in the environment endangers ecosystems, and microplastics in babies raise alarming health concerns. Hence, one of the global priorities is circular economy for plastics which does not further exploit fossil fuel feedstocks. However, current technologies like mechanical recycling are inadequate, and innovative ones such as chemical recycling, i.e., converting plastics back to the starting monomers, are essential. For example, we can use the recycled monomers to make new plastics in a circular manner or upcycle them to other value-added functional materials. Here, I will present a sustainable technology we developed for the chemical recycling of polyethylene terephthalate (PET). PET represents 10% of global plastic production and dominates in plastic packaging. The technology relies on mechanochemistry (grinding) which uses mechanical action for the chemical breakdown of plastic polymers in an environmentally friendly way. The next step in our research is to use life cycle and techno-economic assessment to validate the sustainability and commercial viability of our technology with the goal of transferring it to real-world industrial application. T2 - Berlin PostDoc Day 2023 CY - Berlin, Germany DA - 02.11.2023 KW - Mechanochemistry KW - Plastic recycling KW - Circular economy PY - 2023 AN - OPUS4-62103 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Stolar, Tomislav T1 - Breaking the wall of circular plastics economy N2 - Traditional mechanical recycling cannot process most plastic waste streams and most of the plastic waste currently goes to landfills or incineration. Chemical recycling is a promising technology to mitigate this but is hindered by high costs (due to high process temperatures and production of solvent waste). We developed a cost-efficient technology for chemical recycling of plastic waste that reduces greenhouse gas emissions and minimizes energy consumption. It is based on solvent-free mechanochemistry for depolymerization of plastic polymers at ambient conditions. T2 - Falling Walls Lab Berlin-Adlershof CY - Berlin, Germany DA - 21.09.2023 KW - Mechanochemistry KW - Recycling KW - Circular economy PY - 2023 AN - OPUS4-62101 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Stolar, Tomislav T1 - Breaking the wall of circular plastics economy N2 - Traditional mechanical recycling cannot process most plastic waste streams and most of the plastic waste currently goes to landfills or incineration. Chemical recycling is a promising technology to mitigate this but is hindered by high costs (due to high process temperatures and production of solvent waste). We developed a cost-efficient technology for chemical recycling of plastic waste that reduces greenhouse gas emissions and minimizes energy consumption. It is based on solvent-free mechanochemistry for depolymerization of plastic polymers at ambient conditions. T2 - 2023 Falling Walls Science Summit CY - Berlin, Germany DA - 07.11.2023 KW - Mechanochemistry KW - Plastic recycling KW - Circular economy PY - 2023 AN - OPUS4-62102 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Stolar, Tomislav T1 - Upcycling waste PET bottles to porous UiO-66 by mechanochemistry N2 - Single-use plastics are causing plastic pollution, and less than 10% of plastic waste gets recycled globally. Most of it ends up in landfills or gets incinerated in a highly unsustainable manner. Here, I will present a sustainable mechanochemical protocol for the chemical upcycling of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) to porous UiO-66 metal-organic framework (MOF). In the first step, PET is ball-milled with sodium hydroxide and undergoes alkaline hydrolysis to disodium terephthalate (Na2TP). Time-resolved in situ monitoring of ball milling reaction by synchrotron powder X-ray diffraction shows the appearance of crystalline Na2TP after 20 min of milling. However, ex-situ analysis at different milling times by gel permeation chromatography reveals that the depolymerisation step needs more milling for completion. After two hours of ball milling, there are only trace amounts of leftover PET. For upcycling to UiO-66, a zirconium acetate cluster is added to Na2TP together with liquid additives and after milling for T2 - International Conference on Resource Chemistry 2024 CY - Alzenau, Germany DA - 13.03.2024 KW - Mechanochemistry KW - Plastic recycling KW - Circular economy PY - 2024 AN - OPUS4-62105 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -