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Open Access
Featured
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Article |
Elastic films of single-crystal two-dimensional covalent organic frameworks
- Yonghang Yang
- , Baokun Liang
- & Zhikun Zheng
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Article
| Open Access
Force-controlled release of small molecules with a rotaxane actuator
A rotaxane-based mechanochemical system enables force-controlled release of multiple cargo molecules that are appended to its molecular axle.
- Lei Chen
- , Robert Nixon
- & Guillaume De Bo
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Perspective |
Designing a circular carbon and plastics economy for a sustainable future
Four future greenhouse gas emission scenarios for the global plastics system are investigated, with the lead scenario achieving net-zero emissions, and a series of technical, legal and economic interventions recommended.
- Fernando Vidal
- , Eva R. van der Marel
- & Charlotte K. Williams
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Article
| Open Access
Bonding wood with uncondensed lignins as adhesives
A straightforward strategy for preparing lignin-based wood adhesives from lignocellulosic biomass is described, with the resulting adhesives demonstrating performance attractive for plywood manufacture.
- Guangxu Yang
- , Zhenggang Gong
- & Li Shuai
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Article
| Open Access
Catalytic disconnection of C–O bonds in epoxy resins and composites
The authors report a transition-metal-catalysed protocol for recovery of polymer building block bisphenol A and intact fibres from epoxy composites, demonstrating that chemical recycling approaches for thermoset epoxy resins and composites are achievable.
- Alexander Ahrens
- , Andreas Bonde
- & Troels Skrydstrup
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Article |
Dynamic crosslinking compatibilizes immiscible mixed plastics
A new compatibilization strategy installs dynamic crosslinkers into several classes of binary, ternary and postconsumer immiscible polymer mixtures in situ, with the resulting compatibilized dynamic thermosets exhibiting intrinsic reprocessability and enhanced tensile strength and creep resistance.
- Ryan W. Clarke
- , Tobias Sandmeier
- & Eugene Y.-X. Chen
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Article |
Depolymerization of plastics by means of electrified spatiotemporal heating
A depolymerization method is described that uses electrified spatiotemporal heating to selectively generate monomers from the commodity plastics polypropylene and poly(ethylene terephthalate), allowing control over the pyrolysis of plastic waste and reducing the formation of side products.
- Qi Dong
- , Aditya Dilip Lele
- & Liangbing Hu
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Article |
A solution-processed n-type conducting polymer with ultrahigh conductivity
A reaction is described combining oxidative polymerization and in situ reductive n-doping to yield poly(benzodifurandione), a facilely synthesized stable n-type conducting polymer with ultrahigh conductivity, with applications in organic electronics.
- Haoran Tang
- , Yuanying Liang
- & Fei Huang
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Article |
Machine learning-aided engineering of hydrolases for PET depolymerization
Untreated, postconsumer-PET from 51 different thermoformed products can all be almost completely degraded by FAST-PETase in 1 week and PET can be resynthesized from the recovered monomers, demonstrating recycling at the industrial scale.
- Hongyuan Lu
- , Daniel J. Diaz
- & Hal S. Alper
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Article
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Reconstructed covalent organic frameworks
A protocol in which monomers are pre-organized using a reversible and removable urea linkage enables the production of covalent organic frameworks with higher crystallinity and porosity than those produced using standard approaches with randomly aligned monomers.
- Weiwei Zhang
- , Linjiang Chen
- & Andrew I. Cooper
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Perspective |
Critical advances and future opportunities in upcycling commodity polymers
Methods for the transformation of plastics into materials with value, known as plastic waste upcycling, are outlined, and their advantages and challenges in terms of a sustainable plastics economy are discussed.
- Coralie Jehanno
- , Jill W. Alty
- & Haritz Sardon
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Article |
Observing polymerization in 2D dynamic covalent polymers
In situ scanning tunnelling microscopy reveals the dynamic nature of the early stages of two-dimensional (2D) polymer formation and crystallization at the solid–liquid interface.
- Gaolei Zhan
- , Zhen-Feng Cai
- & Steven De Feyter
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Article |
Irreversible synthesis of an ultrastrong two-dimensional polymeric material
The solution-phase irreversible synthesis of a two-dimensional polymer with excellent elastic modulus and yield strength is reported.
- Yuwen Zeng
- , Pavlo Gordiichuk
- & Michael S. Strano
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Article |
Polypeptide organic radical batteries
An environmentally friendly, all-organic radical battery is demonstrated, in which redox-active polypeptides perform as both cathode and anode materials, with a metal-free organic electrolyte.
- Tan P. Nguyen
- , Alexandra D. Easley
- & Karen L. Wooley
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Article |
Near-complete depolymerization of polyesters with nano-dispersed enzymes
Nanoscopic dispersion of enzymes with deep active sites enables chain-end-mediated processive biodegradation of semi-crystalline polyesters with programmable latency and material integrity.
- Christopher DelRe
- , Yufeng Jiang
- & Ting Xu
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Article |
Diversity-oriented synthesis of polymer membranes with ion solvation cages
A diversity-oriented synthesis approach that yields a library of architecturally broad microporous polymers is used to develop structurally diverse polymer membranes with ion specificity and to screen their properties.
- Miranda J. Baran
- , Mark E. Carrington
- & Brett A. Helms
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Article |
Closed-loop recycling of polyethylene-like materials
Polycarbonates and polyesters with materials properties like those of high-density polyethylene can be recycled chemically by depolymerization to their constituent monomers, re-polymerization yielding material with uncompromised processing and materials properties.
- Manuel Häußler
- , Marcel Eck
- & Stefan Mecking
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Article |
Self-assembly of a layered two-dimensional molecularly woven fabric
An anion and metal ion template is used to form woven polymer patches that are joined together by polymerization into a fully woven, two-dimensional, molecular patchwork.
- David P. August
- , Robert A. W. Dryfe
- & Robert J. Young
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Article |
Cleavable comonomers enable degradable, recyclable thermoset plastics
A method of endowing thermoset plastics with a degree of recyclability and reprocessability by incorporating cleavable chemical linkages in the strands of the polymer, rather than in the crosslinks, is presented.
- Peyton Shieh
- , Wenxu Zhang
- & Jeremiah A. Johnson
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Article |
Enhancing crystal growth using polyelectrolyte solutions and shear flow
A method of growing crystals that does not require undisturbed solutions involves adding polyelectrolytes to the starter solution and shearing (that is, stirring).
- Jian-Ke Sun
- , Yaroslav I. Sobolev
- & Bartosz A. Grzybowski
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Letter |
RETRACTED ARTICLE: Living annulative π-extension polymerization for graphene nanoribbon synthesis
A solution-based living annulative π-extension polymerization technique produces graphene nanoribbons with simultaneous control over their length, width and edges, resulting in the synthesis of graphene nanoribbon block copolymers.
- Yuuta Yano
- , Nobuhiko Mitoma
- & Kenichiro Itami
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Letter |
Photoredox catalysis using infrared light via triplet fusion upconversion
Photoredox transformations are achieved with infrared light by using triplet fusion upconversion that converts infrared into visible light, enabling the use of photoredox chemistry on larger scales and through barriers that are impenetrable by visible light.
- Benjamin D. Ravetz
- , Andrew B. Pun
- & Luis M. Campos
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Letter |
Rapid energy-efficient manufacturing of polymers and composites via frontal polymerization
Frontal polymerization of dicyclopentadiene is used to generate thermoset polymers and composite materials with much lower energy requirements and cure times than are needed in conventional oven or autoclave curing approaches.
- Ian D. Robertson
- , Mostafa Yourdkhani
- & Scott R. White
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Letter |
Hyperexpandable, self-healing macromolecular crystals with integrated polymer networks
The integration of macromolecular ferritin protein crystals with hydrogel polymers gives a composite material that expands isotropically and reversibly to twice its size while maintaining periodicity, resists fragmentation and self-heals efficiently.
- Ling Zhang
- , Jake B. Bailey
- & F. Akif Tezcan
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Letter |
Mimicking biological stress–strain behaviour with synthetic elastomers
A polymer code based on a triplet of parameters—network strand length, side-chain length and grafting density—enables materials to be designed with specific combinations of mechanical properties to mimic biological materials.
- Mohammad Vatankhah-Varnosfaderani
- , William F. M. Daniel
- & Sergei S. Sheiko
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Letter |
Intrinsically stretchable and healable semiconducting polymer for organic transistors
Introducing non-covalent crosslinking moieties to polymer semiconductors produces a stretchable and healable material suitable for wearable electronics.
- Jin Young Oh
- , Simon Rondeau-Gagné
- & Zhenan Bao
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Letter |
Rapid removal of organic micropollutants from water by a porous β-cyclodextrin polymer
An alternative material to activated carbon for water remediation is reported: a porous material based on crosslinked cyclodextrins that is better than activated carbons at adsorbing a range of pharmaceuticals, pesticides and other anthropogenic pollutants.
- Alaaeddin Alsbaiee
- , Brian J. Smith
- & William R. Dichtel
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Letter |
An aqueous, polymer-based redox-flow battery using non-corrosive, safe, and low-cost materials
An affordable, safe, and scalable battery system is presented, which uses organic polymers as the charge-storage material in combination with inexpensive dialysis membranes and an aqueous sodium chloride solution as the electrolyte.
- Tobias Janoschka
- , Norbert Martin
- & Ulrich S. Schubert
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Letter |
Flexible high-temperature dielectric materials from polymer nanocomposites
The addition of boron nitride nanosheets to polymer nanocomposites creates dielectric materials that operate at much higher working temperatures than previous polymer dielectrics, as well as being flexible, lightweight, photopatternable, scalable and robust, which now makes them more attractive for electronic device applications than ceramic dielectrics.
- Qi Li
- , Lei Chen
- & Qing Wang
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Letter |
Approaching disorder-free transport in high-mobility conjugated polymers
Measurements and simulations of several high-mobility conjugated polymers show that their charge transport properties reflect an almost complete lack of disorder in the polymers, despite their amorphous microstructures, resulting from the resilience of the planar polymer backbone conformations to side-chain disorder.
- Deepak Venkateshvaran
- , Mark Nikolka
- & Henning Sirringhaus
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News & Views |
Gold's enigmatic surface
Gold is not as inert as was believed — it can promote molecular synthesis. A study uses scanning tunnelling microscopy to catch gold in the act as it guides the formation of one-dimensional polymers from saturated hydrocarbons.
- Robert J. Madix
- & Cynthia M. Friend
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Research Highlights |
DNA-inspired polymerization
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Research Highlights |
Fine-tuning polymerization
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Research Highlights |
Chemistry: Catalyst makes dyeing greener
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Research Highlights |
Nanoscience: Polymerization to order
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Research Highlights |
Chemistry: Cellulose busters
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Research Highlights |
Material science: Speedy silk imprinting
A renewably sourced, circular photopolymer resin for additive manufacturing
Optically healable supramolecular polymers