One‐Pot Synthesis of Depolymerizable δ‐Lactone Based Vitrimers
Abstract
A depolymerizable vitrimer that allows both reprocessability and monomer recovery by a simple and scalable one‐pot two‐step synthesis of vitrimers from cyclic lactones is reported. Biobased δ‐valerolactone with alkyl substituents (δ‐lactone) has low ceiling temperature; thus, their ring‐opening‐polymerized aliphatic polyesters are capable of depolymerizing back to monomers. In this work, the amorphous poly(δ‐lactone) is solidified into an elastomer (i.e., δ‐lactone vitrimer) by a vinyl ether cross‐linker with dynamic acetal linkages, giving the merits of reprocessing and healing. Thermolysis of the bulk δ‐lactone vitrimer at 200 °C can recover 85–90 wt% of the material, allowing reuse without losing value and achieving a successful closed‐loop life cycle. It further demonstrates that the new vitrimer has excellent properties, with the potential to serve as a biobased and sustainable replacement of conventional soft elastomers for various applications such as lenses, mold materials, soft robots, and microfluidic devices.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Jun 03, 2023
- Source ID
- 10.1002/adma.202300954
Entities
People
- H. Jerry Qi
- Liang Yue
- Luxia Yu
- M. G. Finn
- Mingzhe Li
- Rampi Ramprasad
- S. Macrae Montgomery
- Will R Gutekunst
- Xiaohao Sun
- Yong‐liang Su
Organizations
- Georgia Tech
- National Science Foundation
- Office of Naval Research