近日，美国加州理工学院William A. Goddard III团队报道了聚氯乙烯升级改造成聚烯烃润滑油。2026年8月5日出版的《自然》杂志发表了这项成果。

聚氯乙烯（PVC）是一种热塑性塑料，因其重量轻、机械强度高、耐久性好、成本低廉，且具有抗紫外线和阻燃性能，而在家庭和工业领域得到广泛应用。全球年产量约达6000万吨，消费后及工业后的PVC废料带来了显著的环境挑战，例如氯代烃和添加剂溶出，污染地下水和土壤。为解决PVC回收利用及实现碳循环利用这一艰巨挑战，将其增值转化为高价值产品至关重要，这既能分摊相关成本，又能为塑料废料再利用提供强劲的经济激励。

研究组报道了一种将PVC升级转化为粘度可控的高价值润滑油的方法。在70 °C温和条件下使用AlCl₃，PVC经历脱氯、烷基化和链断裂反应，生成乙烯基来源的聚α-烯烃（vPAO）。PVC可作为不同链长α-烯烃烷基化反应的有效模板，生成主链中短支链有限的vPAO，且无需依赖当前PAO技术所必需的茂金属催化剂。

这种由PVC制得的润滑油表现出可调的摩尔质量、100 °C下的运动粘度（KV100 ≈ 14.9–26.3厘斯）、低摩擦系数（COF ≈ 0.08–0.15）和高粘度指数（VI最高达130）。研究组展示了一种经济可行的方法，即以PVC为低成本原料合成具有优异摩擦学性能的高价值润滑油，满足塑料和润滑油行业对可持续发展的共同需求。

附：英文原文

Title: Upcycling of polyvinyl chloride into polyalphaolefin lubricants

Author: Munyaneza Nuwayo, Eric, Thompson, Connor, Civiello, Abby, DiMarco, Adrian, Zhang, Jingtao, Lee, Seungjoo, Sung, Gugyeong, Das, Tridip, Zhang, Yue, Vu, Clark, Koshak, Shelby, Matson, John B., Erdemir, Ali, Goddard, William A., Chen, Xi, Liu, Guoliang

Issue&Volume: 2026-08-05

Abstract: Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) is a thermoplastic used ubiquitously in households and industry owing to its light weight, mechanical strength, durability, low cost and ultraviolet and fire resistance1,2. With a production volume of about 60 million tonnes annually2, post-consumer and post-industrial PVC waste pose marked environmental challenges, such as leaching chlorohydrocarbons and additives, which contaminate groundwater and soil1,2,3,4. To address the formidable challenge of recycling PVC and achieving carbon circularity, valorization into high-value products is essential to mitigate the associated costs and offer high financial incentives for reusing plastic waste5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14. Here we report a method for upcycling PVC into high-value lubricants with controllable viscosities. Using AlCl3 at a mild temperature of 70°C, PVC undergoes dechlorination, alkylation and chain scission, producing vinyl-derived polyalphaolefins (vPAO). PVC serves as an effective template for the alkylation of α-olefins of various chain lengths, producing vPAO with limited short branches in the backbone without the need for metallocene catalysts essential to current PAO technology. The PVC-derived lubricants exhibit tunable molar masses, kinematic viscosities at 100°C (KV100≈14.9–26.3centistokes), a low coefficient of friction (COF≈0.08–0.15) and a high viscosity index (VI up to 130). This work highlights an economical approach to using PVC as a low-cost feedstock to synthesize high-value lubricants with superior tribological properties, meeting the demand for sustainability in both the plastic and lubricant industries.

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-026-10867-z

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10867-z