Polymers from sugars: development of emerging sustainable plastics and investigation of their impact on the marine environment

皇家莎士比亚剧团等主要机构确定了防治塑料污染的重要研究领域，包括了解和控制塑料降解以及开发新的可持续塑料(1)。该项目旨在使用多学科方法打击这两个领域。该项目的主要目标是合成新出现的和新型聚合物，并利用生物降解和生态毒性研究分析其对海洋环境的影响。首先，木糖衍生聚合物(聚醚、聚酯、聚碳酸酯)将被合成、表征并转化为定义明确的颗粒，然后转移到普利茅斯海洋实验室的合作者进行生态毒性测试。这将形成一个反馈循环的开始，以合成无害、毒性较低的聚合物。该项目有可能确定影响环境中聚合物的生物降解性和生态毒性的重要结构/性质关系。这可能会在未来用于设计对环境危害较小的塑料。该项目涉及NERC的几个优先研究领域，包括生产环境和健康环境优先事项。第二名和第三名主管是普利茅斯海洋实验室的研究人员，他们有在海洋环境中进行生物降解和生态毒性研究的经验。(1)使可持续塑料成为可能的科学--第八届化学科学与社会峰会白皮书(CS3)；2020年。Rsc.li/进步塑料-报告。

Key institutions such as the RSC have identified significant areas of research to combat plastic pollution including understanding and controlling plastic degradation and developing new sustainable plastics(1). This project aims to combat both of these areas using a multidisciplinary approach. The principal aims of the project are to synthesise emerging and novel polymers and analyse their impact on the marine environment using biodegradation and ecotoxicity studies. To start off, xylose derived polymers (polyethers, polyesters, polycarbonates) will be synthesised, characterised and converted to well defined particles to be transferred to collaborators at Plymouth Marine Laboratory for ecotoxicity tests. This will form the start of a feedback loop to synthesise benign, less toxic polymers. This project has the potential to identify important structure/property relationships which affect the biodegradability and ecotoxicity of polymers in the environment. This could potentially be used to design less environmentally harmful plastics in the future. This project relates to several NERC priority areas of research including the productive environment and healthy environment priorities. The second and third supervisors are researchers at the Plymouth Marine Laboratory and have experience running biodegradation and ecotoxicity studies in the marine environment. (1) Science to enable sustainable plastics - A white paper from the 8th Chemical Sciences and Society Summit (CS3); 2020. rsc.li/progressive-plastics-report.