Current Challenges and Perspectives in CO₂-Based Polymers

Abstract

Carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) is considered a renewable onecarbon building block for chemical synthesis owing to its abundance, low toxicity, nonflammability, and availability. The incorporation of CO 2 into the polymer backbone affords various ester-or carbonylcontaining moieties, which create desired material properties and impart unique degradability after use under microbial conditions. In this Perspective, we focus on critical advances in CO 2 -derived polymers and highlight catalytic strategies, novel conceptual routes, and potential application fields. The outlook and perspective are provided to describe the future challenges and new strategies for establishing CO 2 -based polymers with desired performances and economic competitiveness comparable to that of petroleum-based materials.

Hybrid Monomer Design Synergizing Property Trade‐offs in Developing Polymers for Circularity and Performance

“…Chemically recyclable polyethylene‐like materials have been achieved through the incorporation of a labile or reactively cleavable bond in the polyethylene main chain structure [61, 62] . Likewise, the chemical recycling of polycarbonates back to epoxides or cyclic carbonate monomers is an interesting and very active area searching solutions to existing challenges [63, 64] . Specifically, the recycled cyclic carbonate monomer is often too thermodynamically stable to repolymerize, which impedes the realization of the closed‐loop circularity [63] .…”

Hybrid Monomer Design Synergizing Property Trade‐offs in Developing Polymers for Circularity and Performance

“…[61,62] Likewise, the chemical recycling of polycarbonates back to epoxides or cyclic carbonate monomers is an interesting and very active area searching solutions to existing challenges. [63,64] Specifically, the recycled cyclic carbonate monomer is often too thermodynamically stable to repolymerize, which impedes the realization of the closed-loop circularity. [63] On the other hand, the chemical recycling of polycarbonates to epoxide monomers is limited to specific monomer structures, primarily derivatives of cyclopentene epoxide [65][66][67] and cyclohexene epoxides, [68][69][70][71] under optimized catalytic systems, where the entropy penalty associated with the CO 2 release must be capable of offsetting the unfavorable generation of high ring strain epoxide monomers.…”

Correlating Metal Redox Potentials to Co(III)K(I) Catalyst Performances in Carbon Dioxide and Propene Oxide Ring Opening Copolymerization

“…[2] Propene oxide (PO)/CO 2 ROCOP is particularly important since the product, poly(propene carbonate) (PPC), shows useful properties. [3] Low molar mass, hydroxyl telechelic PPC reduces carbon emissions in manufacturing of home insulation, automotive and household foams, in addition to having desirable properties as a surfactant. [4] Life-cycle assessments show a 'triple win' where every molecule of carbon dioxide utilized saves two more by avoiding PO consumption.…”