Abstract: This paper evaluates the efficacy of a hybrid treatment for waste-plastic granules using a bio-oil and carbon coating to make the plastic granules compatible with asphalt binder to both promote environmental sustainability and enhance pavement performance. The bio-oil used in this study was derived from waste vegetable oil, and carbon coating was performed using graphene nanoparticles. To evaluate the extent of surface treatment of plastic granules, the formation of surface functional groups was tracked using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy, and their surface energy before and after treatment was measured using inverse gas chromatography. In addition, the thermo-mechanical properties and phase separation of asphalt binders containing treated-plastic granules were studied. The study results showed the total surface energy of plastic was increased by 49% after treatment-promoting interactions between plastics and binder. This in turn led to an 86% reduction in the separation of plastics and binder. The viscosity of binder containing plastics increased significantly; however, the binder with treated plastic had 56% lower viscosity than the binder with non-treated plastic. Binder with treated plastic had increased resistance to fatigue cracking, as evidenced by a significant reduction in G*Sin(δ) compared to the binder with non-treated plastic. Low-temperature properties were also improved for binder with treated plastic compared to binder with non-treated plastic. Finally, the moisture-induced shear-thinning index showed that the presence of treated plastic granules in binder made the binder less susceptible to moisture.

Keywords: waste plastic, polyethylene-terephthalate, moisture susceptibility, waste vegetable oil, asphalt binder

Biography: Dr. Ellie Fini is an Associate Professor at Arizona State University, an Invention Ambassador at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Fulbright Scholar of Aalborg University of Denmark, a Senior Sustainability Scientist at the Global Institute of Sustainability and Innovation and the Director of the Innovation Network for Materials, Methods and Management. Her research focuses on the production, characterization and atomistic modelling of sustainable novel materials for use in construction.

In addition to more than 200 scholarly publications and numerous invited talks, her research has been featured by BBC Women in STEM, Science Nation, Wired Magazine, and CNBC. She is editor of the ASCE Journal of Materials and Journal of Resources, Conservation & Recycling. She has served as the president of ASCE’s North Carolina Northern Branch and a program director of the National Science Foundation. Her achievements have been recognized via multiple awards including an NSF CAREER award, ASEE Gerald Seeley award, BEYA Emerald STEM Innovation award, NC BioTech Research Excellence award and WTS Innovative Transportation Solution award to name a few.