Center for Sustainable Polymers

可持续聚合物中心(CSP)将使用一种全面的战略来发现从可再生原料化学品(如糖、植物油和其他自然来源的起始材料)中提取塑料的创新途径。CSP的愿景是设计、展示和开发具有经济竞争力的聚合物，将产品性能和对环境的影响结合在一起，从而产生切实的社会效益。该中心的工作分为三个主要领域。第一推力侧重于开发新的方法，在传统化学方法的基础上，通过利用微生物的生化作用，将以植物为基础的资源转化为可用于聚合物合成的可行起始材料。这些和其他起始材料在推力II中使用新的环保技术转化为聚合物，这些技术比目前实践的技术更有效率和更有效。推力III专注于将这些进展转化为具有竞争力的材料，使用先进的聚合物体系结构，导致改进和可持续的塑料、弹性体和热固性材料。CSP旨在通过将美国聚合物行业转变为更可持续的企业来影响社会，同时加强参与该中心的学生和年轻科学家的教育和职业发展。中心工作人员与公共政策专家的接触将产生更广泛的影响，在明尼苏达州博览会上向公众传授可持续化学概念的互动展览，为所有年龄段的学生开发与可持续聚合物和绿色化学相关的课程材料，为科学中代表性不足的群体提供研究机会，以及整合商业相关性和促进创新的综合产业关联计划，将实现更广泛的影响。下一代饲料公司致力于将蔗糖、甘油三酯和萜烯等廉价的生物分子转化为可用于生产现有聚合物和新聚合物的单体。这些单体的生产既使用催化还原和选择性官能化等化学过程，也使用涉及生物催化的代谢过程。例如，正在开发使用催化脱氧反应的商品和下一代单体的新路线。这些方法的高通量筛选工作正与计算建模方法结合使用，以帮助指导催化剂种类的选择。微生物宿主正在被重新设计，以帮助生产几个不同家族的官能化碳氢化合物单体，适合于随后的聚合。这一策略导致了灵活的途径，通过这些途径可以改变得到的单体中的链长和官能度。在推力II，受控聚合过程中，中心研究人员正在寻找将生物基单体转化为具有精确可控分子结构的聚合物的方法。在这里，中心研究人员正在实施精密催化转化，以实现高度选择性和高效的聚合过程。此外，正在寻求可回收的交联型热固性树脂的新途径，以及开发新的糖基聚酯、碳酸盐和丙烯酸酯。最后一个重点III领域，杂化聚合物结构，阐述了如何利用复杂和革命性的聚合物体系结构，如多嵌段聚合物，来发现基于可持续聚合物构建块的新的创新性能。这项工作包括帮助指导合成努力的计算策略。这三个科学重点领域的整合，以及与工业合作伙伴的合作，确保了该中心的最终目标--具有经济竞争力和高性能的可持续产品--成为现实。

The Center for Sustainable Polymers (CSP) will use a comprehensive strategy to discover innovative routes to plastics derived from renewable feedstock chemicals such as sugars, plant oils, and other naturally sourced starting materials. The CSP vision is to design, demonstrate and develop economically competitive polymers that combine product performance and negligible environmental impact, resulting in tangible societal benefit. The work of the Center is divided into three thrust areas. Thrust I focuses on the development of new methods to convert plant-based resources into viable starting materials for polymer synthesis based on traditional chemical methods and by harnessing the biochemical action of microorganisms. These and other starting materials are converted into polymers in Thrust II using new environmentally friendly techniques that are more efficient and more effective than currently practiced technologies. Thrust III focuses on translating these advances into competitive materials using sophisticated polymer architectures that lead to improved and sustainable plastics, elastomers, and thermosets. The CSP aims to impact society by transforming the US polymer industry to a more sustainable enterprise while enhancing the education and career development of students and young scientists involved with the Center. Additional broad impact will be realized through the engagement of Center personnel with public policy experts, interactive exhibits at the Minnesota State Fair that teach concepts of sustainable chemistry to the general public, development of curricular materials related to sustainable polymers and green chemistry for students of all ages, research opportunities for underrepresented groups in the sciences, and a comprehensive Industrial Affiliates Program that integrates commercial relevance and facilitates innovation. Thrust I, Next Generation Feedstocks, is focused on conversion of inexpensive bio-based molecules such as saccharides, triglycerides and terpenes to monomers that can be used to generate both established and new polymers. The monomers are produced using both chemical processes, such as catalytic reductions and selective functionalizations, and metabolic processes involving biocatalysis by organisms. For example, new routes to commodity and next-generation monomers using catalytic deoxygenation reactions are being developed. High throughput screening efforts for these methods are being utilized in conjunction with computational modeling approaches to help guide the choice of catalyst species. Microbial hosts are being reengineered to help produce several different families of functionalized hydrocarbon monomers suitable for subsequent polymerization. This strategy leads to flexible pathways by which chain length and functionality in the resulting monomer can be altered. In Thrust II, Controlled Polymerization Processes, Center investigators are searching for methods to convert biobased monomers into polymers with precisely controlled molecular structures. Here center researchers are implementing precision catalytic transformations that allow for highly selective and efficient polymerization processes. In addition, new routes to recyclable crosslinked thermosets and the development of new sugar-based polyesters, carbonates, and acrylates are being pursued. And the final Thrust III area, Hybrid Polymer Structures, addresses how sophisticated and revolutionary polymer architectures such as multiblock polymers can be exploited to uncover new and innovative properties based on sustainable polymer building blocks. This work includes computational strategies that aid in guiding the synthetic efforts. Integration of these three scientific focus areas, and collaboration with industrial partners, ensures that the ultimate goal of the Center, economically competitive and high performance sustainable products, becomes reality.