Progressive plastics: recent research

Our 2019 report, Science to enable sustainable plastics, identified four major research challenges, which must be tackled urgently if we are to achieve a more sustainable future for plastics.

We've collected together some open access articles from our journals, demonstrating how chemists are working to address each of these challenges.

1. Understand the impact of plastics throughout their life cycles

Developing a systematic method for extraction of microplastics in soils

Analytical Methods

Rapid direct analysis of river water and machine learning assisted suspect screening of emerging contaminants in passive sampler extracts

Analytical Methods

Micro- and nanoplastics – current state of knowledge with the focus on oral uptake and toxicity

Nanoscale Advances

Nanoplastics formed during the mechanical breakdown of daily-use polystyrene products

Nanoscale Advances

2. Develop new sustainable plastics

Advances in catalytic routes for the production of carboxylic acids from biomass: a step forward for sustainable polymers

Chemical Society Reviews

Bamboo-flour-filled cost-effective poly(ε-caprolactone) biocomposites: a potential contender for flexible cryo-packaging applications

Materials Advances

Recyclable, sustainable, and stronger than portland cement: a composite from unseparated biomass and fossil fuel waste

Materials Advances

Make or break: Mg(ii)- and Zn(ii)-catalen complexes for PLA production and recycling of commodity polyesters

Polymer Chemistry

Polybenzoxazines: a sustainable platform for the design of fast responsive and catalyst-free vitrimers based on trans-esterification exchanges

Polymer Chemistry

Organocatalytic carbon dioxide fixation to epoxides by perfluorinated 1,3,5-triols catalysts

Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry

Spent coffee waste as a renewable source for the production of sustainable poly(butylene succinate) biocomposites from a circular economy perspective

RSC Advances

3. Closed loop plastics recycling

Electrochemical methods for materials recycling

Materials Advances

Building thermally and chemically reversible covalent bonds in vegetable oil based epoxy thermosets. Influence of epoxy–hardener ratio in promoting recyclability

Materials Advances

Malleable and recyclable imide–imine hybrid thermosets: influence of imide structure on material property

Materials Advances

Dual-catalytic depolymerization of polyethylene terephthalate (PET)

Polymer Chemistry

Liquid fuel from waste tires: novel refining, advanced characterization and utilization in engines with ethyl levulinate as an additive

RSC Advances

Novel sustainable materials from waste plastics: compatibilized blend from discarded bale wrap and plastic bottles

RSC Advances

4. Understand and control plastic degradation

Inherently degradable cross-linked polyesters and polycarbonates: resins to be cheerful

Polymer Chemistry