Towards Upcycling Biomass-Derived Crosslinked Polymers with Light

Photodegradable, recyclable, and renewable, crosslinked polymers from bioresources show promise towards developing a sustainable strategy to address the issue of plastics degradability and recyclability. Photo processes are not widely exploited for upcycling polymers in spite of the potential to have spatial and temporal control of the degradation in addition to being a green process. In this report we highlight a methodology in which biomass-derived crosslinked polymers can be programmed to degrade at approximate to 300 nm with approximate to 60 % recovery of the monomer. The recovered monomer was recycled back to the crosslinked polymer.

Automated summary

Photodegradable, recyclable, and renewable crosslinked polymers from bioresources have the potential to address the issue of plastics degradability and recyclability.