A promising solution to address the challenges in plastics sustainability is to replace current polymers with chemically recyclable ones that can depolymerize into their constituent monomers for the circular use of materials. Despite the progress, few depolymerizable polymers exhibit the excellent thermal stability and strong mechanical properties of traditional polymers. Here we report a series of chemically recyclable polymers that show excellent thermal stability (decomposition temperature &gt; 370 degree celsius) and tunable mechanical properties. The polymers are formed via ring-opening metathesis polymerization of cyclooctene with a <i>trans</i>-cyclobutane installed at the 5,6-positions. The additional ring converts the non-depolymerizable polycyclooctene into a depolymerizable polymer by reducing the ring strain energy in the monomer (from 8.2 kcal/mol in unsubstituted cyclooctene to 4.9 kcal/mol in the fused ring). The fused-ring monomer enables a broad scope of functionalities to be incorporated, providing access to chemically recyclable elastomers and plastics that show promise as next-generation sustainable materials.

Depolymerizable ROMP polymers based on fused ring cyclooctene monomers

ACS Fall 2021

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