Issue 11, 2024

cis-Fused cyclohexane promoted the chemical recycling of polycarbonate to monomer

Abstract

The development of chemically recyclable polymers serves as a promising strategy to solve the plastic pollution issue. In this contribution, we prepared a seven-membered cyclic carbonate with a cis-fused cyclohexane structure (C6DO). Ring-opening polymerization of this monomer afforded the aliphatic polycarbonate P(C6DO) with high molecular weight and narrow polydispersity. Copolymerization of C6DO with L-lactide (L-LA) allowed access to a series of random copolymers with various C6DO compositions. Changing the C6DO content in the copolymers led to fine-tuning of the thermal and mechanical properties of the resulting copolymers. The amorphous P(C6DO) displayed excellent ductility, with an elongation at break of 423.41 ± 39.22%. Remarkably, copolymer P[(C6DO)800-co-(L-LA)200] demonstrated a tensile strength at break of 10.88 ± 1.08 MPa and elongation at break of 336.78 ± 46.13%. More importantly, P(C6DO) could be effectively and selectively depolymerized into the corresponding monomer C6DO, establishing a circular plastic economy.

Graphical abstract: cis-Fused cyclohexane promoted the chemical recycling of polycarbonate to monomer

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
02 Sun 2024
Accepted
30 Sun 2024
First published
01 Yan 2024

Polym. Chem., 2024,15, 1070-1076

cis-Fused cyclohexane promoted the chemical recycling of polycarbonate to monomer

S. Shan, W. Zhang, Q. Cao, Y. Ye, Z. Cai and J. Zhu, Polym. Chem., 2024, 15, 1070 DOI: 10.1039/D4PY00005F

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