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Research Interests 

Because of their environmental persistence and dependence on fossil-based resources, the intensive use of most polymers currently on the market is viewed as unsustainable. One vision for more sustainable polymers is that of materials, derived from renewable feedstocks, which exhibit closed-loop life cycles.

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Figure 1. Strategies towards more sustainable and circular polymers, derived from renewable feedstocks

Bio-derived polymers

Research in our team involves the development of bio-derived polymers with targeted properties, which can be applied as commodity plastics (packaging, elastomers, coatings) and specialty functional molecules (liquid formulations, electrolytes for batteries, sensors for health). To that effect, we have for example recently incorporated monosaccharide units into synthetic polymer backbones, to imbue the resulting materials with the desirable attributes of sugar feedstocks: abundance, renewability, diversity, functionalisability and degradability. This has led our team to make scientific discoveries across chemistry and materials science. We have thus pioneered the synthesis of polycarbonates from sugars and COâ‚‚ (Gregory et al. 2016 Macromolecules; McGuire et al. 2019 J. Am. Chem. Soc.) and demonstrated the potential of synthetic carbohydrate polymers for tuneability (McGuire et al. 2021 Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. and Macromolecules) and applications, e.g. as plastics films with gas-barrier properties (Piccini et al. 2021 ACS Appl. Polym. Mater.), or as battery electrolytes (Oshinowo et al. J. Mater. Chem. A). Our group has also devised methods to incorporate sugar units into commercial polymers (PLA, PMMA…) to enhance their degradability to light (Hardy et al. 2022 Chem. Commun.) and/or hydrolysis (Hardy et al. 2023 ACS Macro Lett.). We also work with Dr Hannah Leese (University of Bath) towards the development of bio-derived polymer sensors for health (biomarker detection) and environmental applications (PFAS remediation).

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Figure 2. Selected examples of novel sugar-derived polymers and their applications, developed in the team.

(De)-polymerisation catalysis, modelling and automation

Catalysis is at the heart of polymer production, but its role in the chemical recycling of polymers into their monomers has recently attracted a lot of attention. Indeed, when mechanical recycling is not possible anymore, chemical recycling to monomer (CRM) is ideal to minimise waste and energy input. In collaboration with Prof C. K. Williams FRS (University of Oxford), we for example have reported polymer CRM catalysts operating on neat polymer films. This strategy has been applied to the chemical recycling of commercial PLA (McGuire et al. 2023 J. Am. Chem. Soc.) and emerging polycarbonate materials (McGuire et al. 2022 J. Am. Chem. Soc.) but more research is still needed. The ability to create a selective catalytic chemical sorting of intractable mixed plastics waste, based on catalyst selectivity, is also the focus of a collaboration with Prof. A. P. Dove (University of Birmingham). On all (de)polymerisation catalysis projects, our team routinely uses Density Functional Theory (DFT)  calculations in parallel with experimental work, to aid the elucidation of reaction mechanisms and obtain insight towards the design of better catalysts (Buchard et al. 2023 ACS Catal.; Deacy et al. 2022 J. Am. Chem. Soc.). To intensify the production of renewable polymers we are also investigating the use of flow chemistry and heterogeneous catalysis, in collaboration with Prof T. Junkers (Monash University, Australia).

 

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Figure 3. Selected polymerisation and depolymerisation catalysis activities within the team.

Research Projects

Research projects in the group include:

  • Small molecules (e.g., CO2) activation and transformation.

  • Synthesis of novel monomers and polymers from renewable resources (e.g., sugars).

  • Carbohydrate chemistry and catalysis.

  • Organic and inorganic catalyst design.

  • Polymerisation and depolymerisation catalysis.

  • Computational chemistry (Density Functional Theory Modelling) for mechanistic studies.

  • Application of sustainable polymers (3D printing, packaging, elastomers, battery electrolytes, macromolecular catalysts, metal scavenger membranes, sensors for health...).

 

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