Professor Junpeng Wang of the University of Akron

"Rational Design of Next-Generation Sustainable Polymers"

Over 350 million tons of plastics are produced each year, yet only 5% of them are recycled. The vast majority end up in landfills or the ocean, causing serious environmental concerns. Moreover, the production of polymers consumes finite fossil resources such as petroleum and coal, and the inability to recycle these materials raises concerns about the sustainability of their use. Chemically recyclable polymers have emerged as a potential solution to address these challenges. Despite the developments, few chemically recyclable polymers can match the stability and mechanical properties of conventional polymeric materials. This presentation will showcase our recent efforts to tackle these challenges through two key strategies. First, we demonstrate a new class of depolymerizable polymers from fused-ring cyclooctenes. The fused-ring system reduces the ring strain energy of the monomers, enabling the corresponding polymers to efficiently depolymerize into their monomers. Second, we introduce a new class of degradable polymers that undergo a two-step degradation mechanism—mechanochemical activation followed by degradation. This controlled degradation significantly enhances the stability of these materials while maintaining their degradability. Together, these approaches represent promising advancements in the development of sustainable polymers with improved stability and practical performance characteristics.