Front Cover: A Multitool for Circular Economy: Fast Ring‐Opening Polymerization and Chemical Recycling of (Bio)polyesters Using a Single Aliphatic Guanidine Carboxy Zinc Catalyst (ChemSusChem 12/2023)

The Front Cover shows the material flows in a circular plastics economy and highlights the important role of catalysts in its future implementation. For this purpose, we present a zinc‐based catalyst with a newly developed hybrid guanidine ligand. In the production of renewable polyesters our cataly...

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Published inChemSusChem Vol. 16; no. 12
Main Authors Fuchs, Martin, Schäfer, Pascal M., Wagner, Wolf, Krumm, Ian, Walbeck, Marcel, Dietrich, Regina, Hoffmann, Alexander, Herres‐Pawlis, Sonja
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published 22.06.2023
Subjects
alcoholysis
chemical recycling
polyethylene terephthalate
polylactide
ring-opening polymerization
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Summary:The Front Cover shows the material flows in a circular plastics economy and highlights the important role of catalysts in its future implementation. For this purpose, we present a zinc‐based catalyst with a newly developed hybrid guanidine ligand. In the production of renewable polyesters our catalyst is highly active towards the ring‐opening polymerization of lactide at various reaction conditions, outperforming the industrially used toxic catalyst tin octanoate. Moreover, it shows high activity in the chemical recycling of bio‐based as well as petroleum‐based polyesters. By using specific reaction conditions, the catalyst opens up the possibility to create new processes for the selective recycling from plastic mixtures. This multifunctionality makes our new catalyst a mediator of circular plastic flows and facilitates these material flows like a traffic circle.. More information can be found in the Research Article by M. Fuchs et al.
ISSN:1864-5631
1864-564X
DOI:10.1002/cssc.202300778