Chirik discovers “transformative” route to recyclable plastics
Wendy Plump, Department of Chemistry
Jan. 25, 2021 11 a.m.
As the planet’s burden of rubber and plastic rises unabated, scientists look to the promise of closed-loop recycling to reduce trash. Researchers from Princeton University's Department of Chemistry have discovered a potentially game-changing new molecule with vast implications for fulfilling that promise.
A team of scientists led by Paul Chirik, the Edwards S. Sanford Professor of Chemistry, reports in Nature Chemistry that this molecule connects in a very unusual way: as a repeating sequence of squares, which allows the process to go backwards under certain conditions. In other words, the molecule can be “zipped up” to make a new polymer for use in plastic, and then unzipped — depolymerized — back to its pristine state, ready to be used again.