华中科技大学Liang Luo和香港科技大学Ben Zhong Tang课题组近日取得一项新成果。经过不懈努力，他们的研究开发了在空气中的阳光下，可完全降解为绿色升级产品的共轭聚合物。相关论文于2021年6月28日发表在《美国化学会杂志》上。

本文报道了一种环境自降解的共轭聚合物聚(癸4,6-二炔二酸)，或称PDDA。PDDA作为一种功能材料，在黑暗或无氧环境下是稳定的。但使用寿命结束后，暴露在阳光和空气中，PDDA迅速分解，在一周内通过光氧化完全分解，产生生物相容性好、附加值高的主要降解产物琥珀酸。

PDDA通过空气中的阳光完全降解为绿色升级产品，不留下任何微塑料，不仅创造了环境自降解共轭聚合物的先驱范式，也启发了开发在自然环境中完全降解消费后的共轭聚合物有效的策略。

据悉，数字社会和人工智能的快速发展引发了对特种塑料的爆炸性需求，特别是用于柔性电子和智能设备的共轭聚合物。消费后共轭聚合物的回收和降解比以往任何时候都更重要，以减少对环境的压力。

附：英文原文

Title: Complete Degradation of a Conjugated Polymer into Green Upcycling Products by Sunlight in Air

Author: Sidan Tian, Qiang Yue, Chenchen Liu, Mengyang Li, Mingming Yin, Yuting Gao, Fanling Meng, Ben Zhong Tang, Liang Luo

Issue&Volume: June 28, 2021

Abstract: The rapid development of digital society and artificial intelligence has triggered explosive demands for specialty plastics, especially conjugated polymers that are instrumental for flexible electronics and smart devices. The recycling and degradation of postconsumer conjugated polymers have become more important than ever to reduce the pressure to the environment. Here we report the discovery of an environmentally self-degradable conjugated polymer poly(deca-4,6-diynedioic acid), or PDDA. PDDA is stable in the dark or without oxygen when used as a functional material. However, when exposed to sunlight and air after the service life, PDDA disintegrates rapidly and fully decomposes through photooxidation in a week, yielding biocompatible, value-added succinic acid as a major degradation product. The complete degradation of PDDA into green upcycling products by sunlight in air, without leaving any microplastics, not only renders a pioneering paradigm of environmentally self-degradable conjugated polymers but also inspires developing effective strategies to completely degrade postconsumer conjugated polymers in a natural environment.

DOI: 10.1021/jacs.1c04611

Source: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jacs.1c04611