Chemically recyclable thermoplastics from reversible-deactivation polymerization of cyclic acetals

Tough recyclable polyacetals Cyclic acetals such as dioxolane are appealing building blocks for recyclable plastics but have proven to be difficult to polymerize controllably. Abel et al . show that optimal pairing of a bromomethyl ether and indium or zinc Lewis acid produces polydioxolane with high tensile strength that may be advantageous for packaging applications. Heating this plastic in strong acid easily breaks it back down to its acetal monomer, which can then be recovered by distillation from mixed plastic waste streams in high yield. —JSY