Date/Time
Date(s) - 08/02/2024
1:30 pm - 2:20 pm

Title: Comonomer additives for degradable and recyclable vinyl polymers

Date: Thursday February 8, 2024

Time: 1:30-2:20pm

Room: ABB 165

Host: Dr. Alex Adronov

Abstract: Plastics have become pervasive materials in the modern world. They find applications in nearly all sectors, including food packaging, medicine, clothing, industry, and infrastructure. Unfortunately, society’s addiction to plastics’ low-cost and desirable properties has come at a severe cost: the world is now facing an exponentially worsening global plastic waste crisis. New strategies for managing plastic waste are, therefore, urgently needed. One emerging strategy is the use of comonomer additives that introduce small amounts of degradable bonds into the backbone polymer chains, rendering plastics degradable with minimal changes to their composition and properties. In this talk, I will describe the use of thionolactones as comonomer additives for rendering plastics degradable. Under standard radical polymerization conditions, thionolactones can install degradable thioester bonds into the backbone of vinyl polymers. These versatile additives have been used to prepare degradable polystyrene, polyacrylates, and polyacrylamides. I will first describe the design and synthesis of the thionolactone additives and demonstrate that they allow vinyl polymers to be deconstructed into oligomeric fragments. Furthermore, I will describe how thionolactone additives can be leveraged in a new process for the chemical and thermomechanical recycling of polystyrene, polyacrylates, and vinyl thermosets. Finally, I will describe emerging applications of degradable comonomer additives in cosmetics, information storage, drug delivery, and regenerative medicine.