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Updated: Sep 6, 2025

Depolymerizable Olefinic Polymers Based on Fused-Ring Cyclooctene Monomers
Published on: December 16, 2022
Efficient and Selective Chemical Recycling of CO2 -Based Alicyclic Polycarbonates via Catalytic Pyrolysis
1State Key Laboratory of Fine Chemicals, Dalian University of Technology, 2 Linggong Road, Dalian, 116024, China.
Abstract:
Chemical recycling of polymers to their constituent monomers is the foremost challenge in building a sustainable circular plastics economy. Here, we report a strategy for highly efficient depolymerization of various CO2 -based alicyclic polycarbonates to epoxide monomers in solvent-free conditions by a simple CrIII -Salen complex mediated catalytic pyrolysis process. The chemical recycling of the widely studied poly(cyclohexene carbonate) exhibits excellent reactivity (TOF up to 3000 h-1 , 0.1 mol % catalyst loading) and high epoxide monomer selectivity (>99 %). Mechanistic investigation reveals that the process proceeds in a sequential fashion via a trans-carbonate intermediate.
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