Catalytic process can transform natural polymer into customizable biodegradable plastics

Catalytic process can transform natural polymer into customizable biodegradable plastics

A new study led by Colorado State University Distinguished Professor Eugene Chen outlines a path to creating advanced, recyclable plastics. Published in Nature, the study describes a breakthrough method for upconverting a natural polymer that is usually made by microorganisms into a wide range of new and more sustainable high-performance materials as well as valuable chiral small molecules for organic and polymer synthesis.

Stereodivergent transformation of a natural polyester to enantiopure PHAs

Natural chiral polymers, such as DNA, proteins, cellulose and poly[(R)-3-hydroxybutyrate] ((R)-P3HB), are prevalent in their enantiopure forms1,2. Existing methods to synthesize enantiopure polymers focus on enantiospecific polymerization, in which only one specific enantiomer is obtained from the corresponding chiral monomer3–6. Here we introduce a catalytic stereodivergent synthetic strategy to access all enantiopure di-isotactic poly(3-hydrox…