US Patent Issued to International Business Machines, The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York on Oct. 20 for "Depolymerization of polyurethanes for circular economy plastics" (New York, California Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Oct. 21 -- United States Patent no. 12,767,780, issued on Oct. 20, was assigned to International Business Machines Corp. (Armonk, N.Y.) and The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York (New York).

"Depolymerization of polyurethanes for circular economy plastics" was invented by Luis M. Campos (New York), Dino Wu (New York), James L. Hedrick (Pleasanton, Calif.) and Nathaniel H. Park (San Jose, Calif.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Introduce into a reactor a polyurethane having a benzylic linkage. In one aspect, induce a chemical reduction through a reducing agent and a catalyst to depolymerize the polyurethane having the benzylic linkage. In another aspect, int...