IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v16y2025i1d10.1038_s41467-025-59834-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

On-demand, readily degradable Poly-2,3-dihydrofuran enabled by anion-binding catalytic copolymerization

Author

Listed:
  • Zhen Zhang

    (Chinese Academy of Sciences
    University of Science and Technology of China)

  • Wenxiu Lv

    (Chinese Academy of Sciences)

  • Maosheng Li

    (Chinese Academy of Sciences)

  • Yanchao Wang

    (Chinese Academy of Sciences)

  • Xianhong Wang

    (Chinese Academy of Sciences
    University of Science and Technology of China)

  • Youhua Tao

    (Chinese Academy of Sciences
    University of Science and Technology of China)

Abstract

Copolymerization with cleavable comonomers is a versatile approach to generate vinyl polymer with viable end-of-life options such as biodegradability. Nevertheless, such a strategy is ineffective in producing readily degradable 2, 3-dihydrofuran (DHF) copolymer with high-molecular-weight (>200 kDa). The latter is a strong and biorenewable thermoplastic that eluded efficient cationic copolymerization synthesis. Here, we show that an anion-binding catalyst seleno-cyclodiphosph(V)azanes enable the efficient cationic copolymerization with cyclic acetals by reversibly activating both different dormant species to achieve both high living chain-end retention and high-molecular-weight. This method leads to incorporating low density of individual in-chain acetal sequences in PDHF chains with high-molecular-weight (up to 314 kDa), imparting on-demand hydrolytic degradability while without sacrificing the thermomechanical, optical, and barrier properties of the native material. The proposed approach can be easily adapted to existing cationic polymerization to synthesize readily degradable polymers with tailored properties while addressing environmental sustainability requirements.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhen Zhang & Wenxiu Lv & Maosheng Li & Yanchao Wang & Xianhong Wang & Youhua Tao, 2025. "On-demand, readily degradable Poly-2,3-dihydrofuran enabled by anion-binding catalytic copolymerization," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-10, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-59834-8
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-59834-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-59834-8
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-025-59834-8?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-59834-8. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.