Marine plastic pollution
is a worldwide challenge making advances
in the field of biodegradable polymer materials necessary. Polylactide
(PLA) is a promising biodegradable polymer used in various applications;
however, it has a very slow seawater degradability. Herein, we present
the first library of PLA derivatives with incorporated “breaking
points” to vary the speed of degradation in artificial seawater
from years to weeks. Inspired by the fast hydrolysis of ribonucleic
acid (RNA) by intramolecular transesterification, we installed phosphoester
breaking points with similar hydroxyethoxy side groups into the PLA
backbone to accelerate chain scission. Sequence-controlled anionic
ring-opening copolymerization of lactide and a cyclic phosphate allowed
PLA to be prepared with controlled distances of the breaking points
along the backbone. This general concept could be translated to other
slowly degrading polymers and thereby be able to prevent additional
marine pollution in the future.
Cellulose acetate is one of the most important cellulose derivatives and commercially mainly produced using the Acetic Acid Process, in which overstoichiometric amounts of acetic anhydride and concentrated acetic acid...
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