MPS-Ascend: Improved polymer upcycling strategies via stochastic thermodynamics

该奖项全部或部分由《2021年美国救援计划法案》（公法117-2）资助。Jorge Rosa Raices博士被授予NSF数学和物理科学提升博士后研究奖学金（NSF MPS-Ascend），以开展一项与扩大STEM中代表性不足群体参与相关的研究和活动计划。在资深科学家的指导下，Rosa Raices博士的研究名为“MPS-Ascend：通过随机热力学改进聚合物升级回收策略”。该奖学金的主办机构是加州大学伯克利分校，赞助科学家是大卫·利默博士。在世界范围内，可持续技术进步受到塑料废物堆积的威胁。为了减少我们未来的塑料废物产量，领先的研究人员正在合成新的聚合物材料，这些材料可以升级回收，或者廉价地分解成有价值的分子原料，以生产同等或更高价值的产品。从这些努力中涌现出一种有前途的可升级回收塑料，这种塑料可以通过可编程激活的嵌入式酶催化剂分解宿主材料，根据需要进行化学自分解。这项工作采用了远离平衡稳定状态的复杂材料的热力学理论，并结合了高效的分子计算机模拟算法。这些将用于在分子水平上研究自拆解塑料，并推断通过自拆解控制其成本效益合成和升级回收的原则。通过这种方式，这项工作旨在通过提供可以加速可持续塑料技术的发展和全球整合的材料设计指南，推动循环塑料经济的发展。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). Dr. Jorge Rosa Raices is awarded an NSF Mathematical and Physical Sciences Ascending Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (NSF MPS-Ascend) to conduct a program of research and activities related to broaden participation by groups underrepresented in STEM. This fellowship to Dr. Rosa Raices supports his research entitled “MPS-Ascend: Improved polymer upcycling strategies via stochastic thermodynamics”, under the mentorship of sponsoring senior scientists. The host institution for the fellowship is University of California, Berkeley, and the sponsoring scientist is Dr. David Limmer. Throughout the world, sustainable technological advance is threatened by unmitigated plastic waste accumulation. To reduce our future output of plastic waste, leading researchers are synthesizing new polymer materials that can be upcycled, or cheaply broken down into valuable molecular feedstock for products of equal or greater value. From these efforts surge a promising class of upcyclable plastics that can chemically self-disassemble on demand through programmable activation of embedded enzymatic catalysts capable of breaking down the host material. This work employs a theory of thermodynamics for complicated materials far from the steady state of equilibrium, combined with efficient molecular computer simulation algorithms. These will be used to study self-disassembling plastics at the molecular level and to infer principles governing their cost-effective synthesis and upcycling through self-disassembly. In this way, the work seeks to advance progress toward a circular plastic economy by providing materials design guidelines that could expedite the development and worldwide integration of sustainable plastic technologies.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.