Preface: Polymerisation and depolymerisation chemistry: the second century Faraday Discussion

As Chairs of the Faraday Discussion on Polymerisation and depolymerisation chemistry, it gives us great pleasure to present this collection of articles which discuss advances in polymer science at the dawn of its second century.

2020 marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of macromolecular science and of Herman Staudinger’s seminal publication on polymerisation reactions.¹ Whether it is under the form of plastic materials or of liquid polymer formulations, polymers have since shaped the modern world in many ways. Today, the annual global production of plastics and polymeric materials comes to nearly 370 million tonnes. Beyond their ubiquity in our daily lives, polymers are key in many emerging technologies and hold tremendous potential to respond to current societal challenges (renewable energy, health and well-being, pollution prevention) and support Sustainable Development Goals. However, it has also been recognised over the last decades that the lifecycles of many polymers are fundamentally unsustainable. Synthetic polymers mostly derive from fossil feedstocks, involve significant carbon dioxide emissions during manufacturing and disposal, suffer difficulties in recycling and many are pervasive and lack degradation mechanisms either industrially or in the environment. This has created a set of serious implications for polymer science from high greenhouse gas emissions to millions of tonnes of mismanaged waste.

These opportunities and challenges set the scene that led to the Faraday Discussion meeting, which welcomed in September 2025 in Oxford 116 expert delegates from all over the world, and examined 25 papers across four areas: (1) utilisation of novel feedstocks (biomass, co-products and wastes) to make polymers; (2) catalysis to make polymerisation processes more efficient and more sustainable, and to control monomer sequence and polymer architectures for function and application; (3) polymerization processes, including data-driven design and manufacturing processes; (4) the chemistry of depolymerisation, polymer recycling and environmental degradation, to improve circularity.

Prof. Marc Hillmyer, from the University of Minnesota, delivered the introductory Spiers Memorial Lecture (https://doi.org/10.1039/D5FD00111K) and by reflecting on lessons learnt across the four themes of the meeting, set the tone brilliantly for three days of discussions and unwavering engagement from the audience, including during the poster sessions. We would like to congratulate the winners of poster prizes: Victoria Lohmann, Ying Wang and Nathan Wybo. The closing presentation from Prof. Stefan Mecking summarised the meeting with good humour and highlighted the profusion of ideas and exciting new research directions that emerged from the discussion. We thank everyone who came for their enthusiasm, in particular early-career researchers.

We would like to thank all of those involved in the organisation of the meeting. Our scientific committee: Matthew Becker, Andrew Dove, Theoni Georgiou and Steve Howdle helped us to put together a diverse and exciting programme. Katharina Eisenhardt and Jack Tinker did a fantastic job as our meeting stewards. We thank the Faraday Discussion team at the Royal Society of Chemistry – Claire Springett, Stuart Govan, Kirsty McRoberts and Rini Prakash, for their hard work before, during and after the meeting.

References

1. H. Staudinger, Chem. Ber., 1920, 53(6), 1073–1085,  DOI:10.1002/cber.19200530627.

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