Pan Deng, Lin Chen*, Zi-Jie Cao, Yue Li, Guan-Qi Zheng, Yu-Zhong Wang and Xiu-Li Wang*,
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
Sustainable circular economy, advanced fire safety, and integrated high performance of plastics are gaining increasing global attention. Inspired by the stimulus-responsive defense of natural organisms, we demonstrate an efficient biomimetic strategy to build life-cycle-managed polycarbonate plastics with integrated high performance and fire safety during the service stage and easy recyclability at the end of life. The key is that the designed dual-stimulus-responsive phosphonium-modified macromolecule (PBSP) can release flame retardants on demand under high temperature stimuli in fire or release catalysts on demand under chemical stimulus of ethylene glycol. With only 3 wt % PBSP added, polycarbonate plastics not only exhibit extremely high fire safety (32.1% limiting oxygen index) but also show excellent transparency (>85% transmittance), super heat resistance (145 °C glass transition temperature), and increased tensile strength (86.0 MPa) during the service stage. At the end of life, under the chemical stimulus of ethylene glycol, PBSP automatically releases the pendant phosphonium catalyst to trigger the depolymerization of polycarbonate, achieving ultrahigh atom-economic recycling. By stimulus-responsive biomimetic design, this work opens a new perspective for constructing advanced functional materials with integrated safety, high performance, and easy recyclability, paving the way for sustainable materials development and the global circular economy.
期刊介绍:
Macromolecules publishes original, fundamental, and impactful research on all aspects of polymer science. Topics of interest include synthesis (e.g., controlled polymerizations, polymerization catalysis, post polymerization modification, new monomer structures and polymer architectures, and polymerization mechanisms/kinetics analysis); phase behavior, thermodynamics, dynamic, and ordering/disordering phenomena (e.g., self-assembly, gelation, crystallization, solution/melt/solid-state characteristics); structure and properties (e.g., mechanical and rheological properties, surface/interfacial characteristics, electronic and transport properties); new state of the art characterization (e.g., spectroscopy, scattering, microscopy, rheology), simulation (e.g., Monte Carlo, molecular dynamics, multi-scale/coarse-grained modeling), and theoretical methods. Renewable/sustainable polymers, polymer networks, responsive polymers, electro-, magneto- and opto-active macromolecules, inorganic polymers, charge-transporting polymers (ion-containing, semiconducting, and conducting), nanostructured polymers, and polymer composites are also of interest. Typical papers published in Macromolecules showcase important and innovative concepts, experimental methods/observations, and theoretical/computational approaches that demonstrate a fundamental advance in the understanding of polymers.