The lecture will outline how polymer chemistry can contribute to improving material sustainability from the raw materials used, to efficient block polymer production, to using computational methods to predict and match properties and to delivery of closed-loop, low-energy recycling.[1] It will highlight the potential to use bio-derived and waste resources to make block polyesters. Using switchable polymerization catalysis enables efficient, living polymerizations to occur with a single catalyst and mixtures of epoxides, anhydrides and lactones to deliver block polyesters with tightly controlled molecular masses and sequences.[2] It will present catalyst developments enabling efficient, selective and controlled polymerizations and furnishing precisely sequenced polyesters with high molar mass. The properties of these block polyesters can be significantly improved by exploiting transient strain induced crystallization, metal-ionomer and vitrimers – all of which also enable recycling.[3, 4] New machine learning methods, and targeted databases, to accelerate identification of the optimum block polymer chemistries will be presented.[5] The lecture will highlight the thermal, rheological and mechanical properties in combination with energy efficient recycling by both mechanical and closed-loop chemical recycling processes.
References
(1) Nature 2024, 626, 45-57.
(2) Acc. Chem. Res. 2022, 55, 1997-2010.
(3) Adv. Mater. 2023, 36, 2302825.
(4) J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2025, 147, 6492-6502.
(5) Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2025, 64, e202411097.