Sustainable Polymers with High Performance and Infinite Scalability

Abstract

Our society has been pursuing high-performance biodegradable polymers made from facile methods and readily available monomers. Here, we demonstrate a library of enzyme-degradable polymers with desirable properties from the first reported step polyaddition of diamines, COS, and diacrylates. The polymers contain in-chain ester and thiourethane groups, which can serve as lipase-degradation and hydrogen-bonding physical crosslinking points, respectively, resulting in possible biodegradability as well as upgraded mechanical and thermal properties. Also, the properties of the polymers are scalable due to the versatile method and the wide variety of monomers. We obtain 46 polymers with tunable performance covering high-Tm crystalline plastics, thermoplastic elastomers, and amorphous plastics by regulating polymer structure. Additionally, the polymerization method is highly efficient, atom-economical, quantitatively yield, metal- and even catalyst-free. Overall, the polymers are promising green materials given their degradability, simple and modular synthesis, remarkable and tunable properties, and readily available monomers.