LEAPS-MPS: Biomass-Derived Depolymerizable and Degradable Polymers as Sustainable Materials

在这个由美国国家科学基金会化学部门管理的项目中，孙浩教授和他在纽黑文大学的学生将进行研究，旨在开发具有高度可调热机械性能的生物质衍生的可解聚和可降解聚合物材料。商品乙烯基聚合物和聚烯烃在现代社会中无处不在，由于其不可降解的碳-碳骨架，对环境造成了负面影响。孙教授和他的学生将利用生物质衍生的单体来开发聚合物，以应对这一挑战，这些单体可以根据需要分解（即可解聚和可降解）。他们的研究可以建立可降解聚合物结构与热机械性能之间的关系，以评估其在工业应用中的潜力。该项目还将通过招募代表性不足的少数民族学生研究人员，开发一门关于可降解聚合物的新本科实验课程，并与当地高中接触，为STEM教育做出贡献，扩大人们对聚合物科学和可持续性的参与。孙教授和他的学生将从现成的生物质资源中开发可解聚和可降解的聚合物材料的合成方法。将设计和合成两类生物质衍生聚合物，包括可解聚聚烯烃和可降解聚烯醇醚。在他们的方法中使用开环复分解聚合（ROMP）技术将产生具有模块化分子结构和分子量可调的明确定义的可降解聚合物，从而建立结构-解聚和结构-降解关系。了解这些相关性将产生具有可编程解聚或降解动力学的聚合物材料，用于各种应用，如药物输送系统和刺激响应材料。此外，孙教授将系统地评估所提出的聚合物的热机械性能，目标是将这些生物质衍生的聚合物作为一种新型的可持续和反应性材料应用于工业。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。

In this project managed by the Chemistry Division at NSF, Professor Hao Sun and his students at the University of New Haven will perform studies that aim to develop biomass-derived depolymerizable and degradable polymer materials with highly tunable thermomechanical properties. The ubiquity of commodity vinyl polymers and polyolefins in modern society has caused negative environmental impacts because of their non-degradable carbon-carbon backbones. Professor Sun and his students will tackle this challenge by developing polymer using biomass-derived monomers that can break down as needed (i.e. depolymerizable and degradable). Their studies could lead to establishing a relationship between the degradable polymer structure and thermomechanical properties to evaluate their potential in industrial applications. The project will also contribute to STEM education and broadened participation in polymer science and sustainability through recruiting underrepresented minority student researchers, developing a new undergraduate lab course about degradable polymers, and reaching out to local high schools.Professor Sun and his students will develop synthetic approaches to depolymerizable and degradable polymer materials from readily available biomass resources. Two classes of biomass-derived polymers will be designed and synthesized, including depolymerizable polyolefins and degradable poly(enol ether)s. The employment of ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP) technique in their approaches will generate well-defined degradable polymers with modular molecular structure and tunable molecular weights, enabling the establishment of structure-depolymerization and structure-degradation relationships. Understanding these correlations will give rise to polymer materials with programmable depolymerization or degradation kinetics for various applications such as drug delivery systems and stimuli-responsive materials. Furthermore, Professor Sun will systematically evaluate the thermomechanical properties of proposed polymers, with the goal of advancing these biomass-derived polymers as a new kind of sustainable and responsive materials for industrial applications.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.