{"title":"Chemical Recycling of Polymethacrylates.","authors":"Glen R Jones, Athina Anastasaki","doi":"10.2533/chimia.2025.484","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Polymethacrylates, including poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), are produced on a large scale for applications ranging from optics to construction, yet their end-of-life fate remains largely linear. Chemical recycling to regenerate the monomer (depolymerization) offers a promising route to circularity, but conventional methods such as pyrolysis rely on high-temperature random scission pathways that suffer from poor selectivity and undesirable side reactions. Recent advances have demonstrated that polymethacrylates synthesized by controlled radical polymerizations can undergo efficient depolymerization under milder conditions through reactivation of thermally labile chain-end functionalities. Emerging mid-chain-initiated depolymerization strategies further extend low temperature chemical recycling to polymers produced by conventional free-radical polymerization. This review highlights these developments, comparing mechanisms, limitations, and opportunities towards scalable, energy-efficient chemical recycling of polymethacrylates to support a more sustainable plastic economy.</p>","PeriodicalId":9957,"journal":{"name":"Chimia","volume":"79 7-8","pages":"484-490"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6000,"publicationDate":"2025-08-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Chimia","FirstCategoryId":"92","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.2533/chimia.2025.484","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"CHEMISTRY, MULTIDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Polymethacrylates, including poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), are produced on a large scale for applications ranging from optics to construction, yet their end-of-life fate remains largely linear. Chemical recycling to regenerate the monomer (depolymerization) offers a promising route to circularity, but conventional methods such as pyrolysis rely on high-temperature random scission pathways that suffer from poor selectivity and undesirable side reactions. Recent advances have demonstrated that polymethacrylates synthesized by controlled radical polymerizations can undergo efficient depolymerization under milder conditions through reactivation of thermally labile chain-end functionalities. Emerging mid-chain-initiated depolymerization strategies further extend low temperature chemical recycling to polymers produced by conventional free-radical polymerization. This review highlights these developments, comparing mechanisms, limitations, and opportunities towards scalable, energy-efficient chemical recycling of polymethacrylates to support a more sustainable plastic economy.
期刊介绍：
CHIMIA, a scientific journal for chemistry in the broadest sense covers the interests of a wide and diverse readership. Contributions from all fields of chemistry and related areas are considered for publication in the form of Review Articles and Notes. A characteristic feature of CHIMIA are the thematic issues, each devoted to an area of great current significance.
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