Sean Gitter

The thermodynamics and kinetics of depolymerization: what makes vinyl monomer regeneration feasible? Depolymerization is potentially a highly advantageous method of recycling plastic waste which could move the world closer towards a truly circular polymer economy. However, depolymerization remains ch...

Athina Anastasaki, Associate Editor of @polymerchem.rsc.org, and co-workers at ETH Zürich covered the thermodynamics and kinetics of depolymerisation in their Perspective article, which you can read for free here: doi.org/10.1039/D3SC...

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Redox-Selective Macromolecular Electrolysis for Sequential Functionalization and Deconstruction This study demonstrates that selective macromolecular electrolysis can be achieved on copolymers containing redox-orthogonal targets by controlling the externally applied voltage. We designed macromolecules containing phthalimide (E1/2 = −1.8 V vs Ag/AgNO3) and tetrachlorophthalimide (E1/2 = −1.3 V vs Ag/AgNO3) (meth)acrylates that have significantly different reduction potentials such that they are separately redox-addressable. The polymer-centered radicals generated by decarboxylation can either undergo (1) hydrogen atom transfer to form olefinic repeat units or (2) β-scission to deconstruct the polymer backbone. Our results reveal selective electrochemical control over postpolymerization modifications, which enables sequential transformations that tune the glass transition temperature of electrochemically generated copolymers over a range of −54 to 125 °C. This method was also shown to maintain its selectivity in a polymer blend and provided access to copolymers (poly(styrene-co-propylene-co-ethylene)) that would be challenging to prepare in other ways. These results demonstrate the potential of macromolecular electrolysis for selective material functionalization and degradation. This approach expands the toolbox for postpolymerization modification and targeted polymer degradation with applications in macromolecular information processing, spatiotemporal patterning, and producing materials with complex architectures that are driven by external stimuli.

Super excited for my first ever paper in J. Am. Chem. Soc. In this work, led by grad student Graham Gilchrist, we demonstrate that selectively functionalizing copolymers and polymer blends using macromolecular electrolysis is possible - it's pretty shocking.

pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

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