Chemically recyclable fluorescent polyesters via the ring-opening copolymerization of epoxides and anhydrides

Young, Taylor B., Guppy, Owaen G., Draper, Alysia J., Whitington, Joshua M., Kariuki, Benson M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8658-3897, Paul, Alison ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7653-9964, Eaton, Mark ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7388-6522, Pope, Simon J. A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9110-9711 and Ward, Benjamin D. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1406-5940 2023. Chemically recyclable fluorescent polyesters via the ring-opening copolymerization of epoxides and anhydrides. Polymer Chemistry 10.1039/D3PY00209H

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Abstract

Polymers rarely possess the desired properties for their intended application; additives (plasticizers, flame-retardants, stabilizers, colourants) modify their physical properties to those needed in the final product. Colourants are particularly detrimental to recycling technologies, since they cannot be removed by reprocessing; reprocessed plastic retains color from the original material. We have prepared single-component, coloured polymers by adding chromophore monomers to epoxide-anhydride ring-opening copolymerization reactions; chromophores need only be added at dopant levels to give highly coloured materials with little change in properties from the base polymer. We have depolymerized the polymers to the parent acid/alcohol and have remade colourless polymer from reformed epoxide and anhydride. Our approach paves the way to using dopant-level monomers to access recyclable polymers with dial-a-property tunability.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Published Online
Status:	Published
Schools:	Advanced Research Computing @ Cardiff (ARCCA) Chemistry
Publisher:	Royal Society of Chemistry
ISSN:	1759-9954
Funders:	EPSRC
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	20 April 2023
Date of Acceptance:	2 April 2023
Last Modified:	11 Jun 2024 14:53
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/158926

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