Not all plastics can be entered into an infinite recycle loop to form a  circular economy. In some cases, recovery of the monomers that they are formed from is simply not possible. For example, while depolymerisation of bisphenol-A based polycarbonate (BPA-PC) can lead to recovery of BPA which can be recycled to new polymer, the C=O moiety is lost as gas when the plastic is hydrolysed. Extending the example of BPA-PC depolymerisation, we and others,<sup> </sup>have shown that the carbonyl can be retained in other linear and cyclic carbonate species.<sup> </sup>Using ionic organo catalysts and dual catalytic approaches, we have shown that, in the presence of diols, BPA-PC can be depolymerised to recover BPA but also create new cyclic carbonate monomers that can be used to create other materials. Our focus has been to create 6-membered rings that can be readily repolymerised (using organocatalytic approaches) into aliphatic polycarbonates that can be used to create photocurable materials suitable for 3D printing objects. The biocompatible and biodegradable nature of the resultant materials makes them suitable for application as biomedical devices.

Organocatalytic chemical upcycling of BPA-polycarbonate into 3D printable devices

Macromolecular Chemistry: The Second Century

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ACS Spring 2020 National Meeting & Expo

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.