Catalysis is a foundational pillar for sustainable chemical processes; the discovery of highly active, environmentally benign catalytic processes is a central goal of Green Chemistry.  Plastics are ubiquitous and highly useful modern materials, but their widespread utility and indiscriminate disposal has left an adverse and enduring environmental legacy.  We have developed a broad class of highly active, environmentally benign organic catalysts for the synthesis of biodegradable and biocompatible plastics.  Conventional routes to polyester plastics rely on metal catalysts; this technology describes the application of metal-free organic catalysts for the synthesis and recycling of polyesters.  Several new families of organic catalysts have been discovered which rival or exceed metal-based alternatives for polyester synthesis, both in terms of activity and selectivity.  These new synthetic strategies provide an environmentally attractive, atom-economical, low energy alternative to traditional metal catalyzed processes.  This technology includes organocatalytic approaches to ring-opening, anionic, zwitterionic, group transfer, and condensation polymerization techniques. Fundamental mechanistic and theoretical investigations have provided new scientific insights on the diversity of mechanistic pathways for organocatalytic polymerization reactions and the opportunities that these new insights have created for the synthesis of well-defined macromolecular architectures.  The monomer feedstocks have focused on those from renewable resources such as lactides derived from biomass, but also from petrochemical feedstocks. An emphasis will be placed on functional polycarbonates.This talk will focus on application of organic catalysis towards functional degradable polymers as well as the degradation of plastic refuse to generate high-end materials for antimicrobial applications, as well as alternative strategies to lithography based on probe-base techniques.

Organic catalysis: A broadly useful strategy for functional biodegradable polymers

248th National Meeting (2014)

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