Abstract
If plastics had personalities, thermosets would have a reputation for being strong and stubborn. Unlike thermoplastics, which make up water bottles, strawberry containers, and other recyclable plastics, thermosets can’t be remolded with heat or chemicals. Once hardened, a thermoset is locked into its shape because of chemical cross-linking. This makes thermosets useful in applications where the plastic will encounter high temperatures or harsh chemicals but also means thermosets can’t be recycled. So they ultimately wind up in landfills. Now, thanks to a new polymerization reaction, chemists have made thermosets that can be returned to their constituent diamine monomers via exposure to low pH (Science 2014, DOI: 10.1126/science.1251484). A team led by Jeannette M. Garcia and James L. Hedrick of the IBM Almaden Research Center developed the reaction, which condenses a diamine monomer with paraformaldehyde. At low temperature, the reaction forms a hemiaminal dynamic covalent network. Turn up the heat, and ...
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