Crosslinked low-density polyethylene (XLLDPE) is widely used in several specialty plastics industries. However, the permanent chemical crosslinks cause high-melt viscosity and poor processability, preventing the material from being reused and recycled effectively. This study investigates solid-state shear pulverization (SSSP) as a continuous, commercially viable mechanochemical processing technique to initiate the decrosslinking of XLLDPE for mechanical recycling. Post-industrial XLLDPE scrap material was processed using SSSP with a range of pulverization conditions, which were correlated with universal processing covariants of specific mechanical energy and particle size distribution.
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