CCI Phase I: NSF Center for Polymers for a Circular Economy (PCE)

美国国家科学基金会循环经济聚合物研究中心（PCE）由化学学部化学创新中心（CCI）项目支持。塑料无处不在，对现代社会至关重要，但不幸的是，它对环境造成了沉重的代价。理想情况下，可以开发出传统塑料的替代品，既能降低它们对环境的负担，又能保留它们不可或缺的独特物理特性。PCE的目标是开发新的策略，从廉价的起始材料合成有效的替代聚合物，包括二氧化碳，农业和林业的生物质残留物，以及食物垃圾中的油。PCE的一个同样重要的目标是了解如何设计新型聚合物，在其生命周期结束时，而不是进入垃圾填埋场，可以有效地降解或分解成安全，易于回收的组件。PCE将通过开发创业培训项目和建立联合学术/工业项目，鼓励学生在科学领域的职业发展。中心成员将发起一个由学生主导的可持续发展俱乐部，在具有不同可持续化学背景的科学家和公民科学家之间建立社会和文化桥梁。PCE还将制作一系列视频，教育公众如何确保塑料的可持续未来。创造真正的聚合物循环最终需要在合成基础单体的过程中从石化产品转向负碳和中性原料。新的合成方法和途径将被开发用于聚合物合成，利用可持续的原料，包括二氧化碳、生物质残留物和食物垃圾中的油。遵循这一循环主题，PCE还将研究具有有意定位官能团和结构特征的单体，这些特征在聚合后具有可控降解和/或解聚的能力。环境可降解聚合物的化学方法包括含官能团的缩合聚合物和由双环内酰胺和内酯单体生成的聚合物。聚合物的解聚方法将通过从形成三级自由基的乙烯基单体和从形成端基自由基的低聚物合成聚合物来研究。PCE将开发预测性多尺度模型，以指导单体的合成，预测聚合物的性质，并在分子和介观尺度上了解官能团位置对降解和解聚的影响。所使用的模拟工具包括密度泛函理论和耗散粒子动力学。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。

The NSF Center for Polymers for a Circular Economy (PCE) is supported by the Centers for Chemical Innovation (CCI) Program of the Division of Chemistry. Plastics are ubiquitous and essential for modern society, but unfortunately place a heavy toll on the environment. Ideally, replacements could be developed for conventional plastics that would lower their environmental burdens yet retain the unique physical properties that have made them indispensable. The goal of PCE is to develop new strategies for synthesizing effective replacement polymers from inexpensive starting materials that include carbon dioxide, biomass residues from agriculture and forestry, and oils from food waste. An equally important objective of PCE is to understand how to design novel polymers that at the end of their life cycle, instead of entering a landfill, can be effectively degraded or broken apart into safe, easily recyclable components. PCE will be encouraging the advancement of student careers in science through the development of training programs in entrepreneurship and the establishment of joint academic/industry projects. Center team members will initiate a student-led Sustainability Club to build social and cultural bridges among scientists and citizen-scientists with different backgrounds in sustainable chemistry. PCE will also develop a series of videos to educate the public on the future of ensuring a sustainable future for plastics.Creating true polymer circularity ultimately requires a massive shift from petrochemicals to carbon-negative and neutral feedstocks in the synthetic generation of the foundational monomer building blocks. New synthetic methods and approaches will be developed for polymer synthesis, taking advantage of sustainable feedstocks that include carbon dioxide, biomass residues, and oils from food waste. Adhering to this theme of circularity, PCE will also investigate monomers with intentionally positioned functional groups and structural features that, after polymerization, instill a capability for controlled degradation and/or depolymerization. Chemical approaches for environmentally degradable polymers include functional group-containing condensation polymers and polymers generated from bicyclic lactam- and lactone-monomers. Depolymerization approaches for polymers will be investigated by synthesizing polymers from vinyl monomers that form tertiary radicals and from oligomers that form end group radicals. PCE will develop predictive multiscale modeling to guide the synthesis of monomers, predict polymeric properties, and understand the impact of functional group placements on degradation and depolymerization at the molecular and mesoscopic scales. The simulation tools utilized will include density functional theory and dissipative particle dynamics.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.