[Plastic] New molecules paved the way for the "revolution" of renewable plastics

As the burden of rubber and plastic waste on the planet continues to increase, scientists expect to reduce the amount of waste through closed-loop recycling.

Researchers from the Department of Chemistry at Princeton University said that the molecule is connected in a very unusual way into a repeating sequence of squares, which can be reversed under certain conditions to "compress" the molecule into a new polymer used to make plastics.

In the past, expensive special polymers and multiple processes were required to restore similar materials to their original state, and ordinary raw materials such as butadiene have never been used.

The researchers said that using a truly universal chemical substance that people have studied and aggregated for decades, a brand-new material is created from it, and the material also has interesting properties, which is a step forward in sustainable chemistry.

Researchers use iron as a catalyst to synthesize new molecules, which can "click" together butadiene monomers to form oligomeric cyclobutanes.

To decompress it, exposing the molecules to a vacuum under the conditions of an iron catalyst will reverse the "compression" process and recover the original material, making it a rare example of a closed chemical cycle.

The material also has fascinating properties.

Even in the case of a low molecular weight of 1 kg/mol, it also exhibits high crystallinity, which shows that it can achieve its ideal physical properties (such as crystallinity and material strength) under lighter conditions.

The researchers said that the material made of this monomer is very hard and not as fragile or durable as ordinary recycled plastics .

(Keyword: recycled plastic)