The group of Qinggang Wang at the Qingdao Energy Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has developed a new strategy for PLA polymer degradation and repolymerization (“DE-RE polymerization” strategy), which enables the recycling process from PLA waste to new PLA material by Zn[N(SiMe3)2]2

in a “polymer-to-polymer” manner (Figure). The mild reaction conditions and few side reactions reduce the raw material consumption for complete PLA re-production and increase the efficiency of PLA recycling. In the repolymerization process, final materials with different properties can be obtained by adding different types of monomers.

https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.macromol.1c02085