Depolymerizable poly(benzyl ether)-based materials for selective room temperature recycling

This communication addresses the question of whether it is possible to design a polymer that can be modified easily to create various traditional classes of polymeric materials while also incorporating a mechanism into the backbone of the polymer for facilitating selective end-of-life recycling capabilities into the new types of materials. We illustrate these capabilities using depolymerizable poly(benzyl ethers), which we modify to access desired properties in plastics. The poly(benzyl ethers) also are designed for selective, programmed, room temperature, and continuous depolymerization of plastics to monomers when the plastic is no longer needed.