Center for Sustainable Polymers

可持续聚合物中心（CSP）将采用全面的战略，探索从可再生原料化学品（如糖、植物油和其他天然原料）中生产塑料的创新途径。CSP的愿景是设计、展示和开发具有经济竞争力的聚合物，这些聚合物将联合收割机产品性能和可忽略的环境影响结合起来，从而产生切实的社会效益。该中心的工作分为三个重点领域。第一个重点是开发新方法，将植物资源转化为可行的起始材料，用于基于传统化学方法和利用微生物的生化作用的聚合物合成。在Thrust II中，这些和其他起始材料使用比目前实践的技术更高效和更有效的新环保技术转化为聚合物。Thrust III专注于将这些进步转化为具有竞争力的材料，使用复杂的聚合物结构，从而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具可持续性的企业来影响社会，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。通过中心人员与公共政策专家的参与，在明尼苏达州博览会上向公众讲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，以及一个综合性的工业联盟计划，该计划整合了商业相关性并促进了创新。Thrust I，Next Generation Feedstocks，专注于将廉价的生物基分子（如甘油三酸酯、甘油三酯和萜烯）转化为可用于生产成熟和新聚合物的单体。单体是使用化学过程（例如催化还原和选择性官能化）和涉及生物体的生物催化的代谢过程来产生的。例如，正在开发利用催化脱氧反应生产商品和下一代单体的新途径。这些方法的高通量筛选工作正在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，以帮助生产适合后续聚合的几种不同家族的官能化烃单体。这种策略导致灵活的途径，通过该途径可以改变所得单体中的链长和官能度。在Thrust 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控制分子结构的聚合物的方法。在这里，中心的研究人员正在实施精确的催化转化，允许高度选择性和有效的聚合过程。此外，正在寻求可回收的交联热固性材料的新途径和新的糖基聚酯、碳酸酯和丙烯酸酯的开发。最后一个Thrust III区域，混合聚合物结构，解决了如何利用复杂和革命性的聚合物结构，如多嵌段聚合物，以发现基于可持续聚合物构建块的新的创新特性。这项工作包括计算策略，帮助指导合成的努力。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，即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.