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Updated: May 22, 2025

Depolymerizable Olefinic Polymers Based on Fused-Ring Cyclooctene Monomers
Published on: December 16, 2022
Crystallization/Precipitation Driven Nonequilibrium Ring-Opening Polymerization of Thiovalerolactone Toward
Weijie Pei1, Yiming Liu2, Qin Yan2
1College of Chemical Engineering, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, 266042, China.
None:
The development of closed-loop recyclable polymers with comparable performances with commodity plastics remains as a challenge to establish a circular plastic economy. In this contribution, we propose a precipitation/crystallization driven nonequilibrium ring-opening polymerization of δ-thiovalerolactone (δTVL) to produce high-molecular-weight PTVL in the presence of a strong base/urea binary catalyst. The obtained PTVL exhibits good thermal and mechanical performances as well as superior barrier properties comparable with some commodity plastics. Remarkably, the obtained PTVL can be depolymerized to recover pristine monomer with a high yield and purity by distillation from a commodity plastic waste mixture without tedious separation, highlighting its great potential as a closed-loop recyclable packaging material.
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