The NSF Center for Sustainable Polymers aims to establish foundational chemical principles that enable the efficient and economical conversion of natural and abundant molecules into tomorrow’s advanced polymers.
We approach this challenge through three interrelated Grand Challenge Project Areas:
Efficient and sustainable conversion of biomass to polymer ingredients
CSP researchers will discover new, efficient, non-toxic, and often catalytic chemical transformations of biomass and other natural product-based feedstocks into both new and established polymer ingredients.
High-performance sustainable plastics and elastomers
CSP researchers will discover new sustainable polymers with precisely controlled molecular structures, and establish relationships between structure, morphology and performance properties.
Sustainable polymer degradation, chemical recycling, and compatibilization
CSP researchers will discover sustainable polymers with capabilities for triggered degradation, chemical recycling, and compatibilizers to improve upon the existing end-of-life for most polymers.
OVERVIEW
CSP researchers work to discover new, efficient, non-toxic, and catalytically mediated chemical transformations of biomass and other natural product-based feedstocks into both established and new polymer ingredients.
RESEARCH PORTFOLIO
Organic, inorganic, and biosynthetic chemistry
FOCUS: Scalable, catalytic conversions of relevant and readily available small molecules; “Rewiring” industrially tractable microbial hosts to create a diverse array of polymer precursors by processes amenable to scale-up for industrial bioreactors.
FEATURE PUBLICATIONS
- Kumar, G.; Liu, D.; Xu, D.; Ren, L.; Tsapatsis, M.; Dauenhauer, P. J. Dehydra-decyclization of 2-methyltetrahydrofuran to pentadienes on boron-containing zeolites. Green. Chem. 2020, 22, 4147–4160.
- Calvino, C.; Macke, N.; Kato, R.; Rowan, S. J. Development, processing and applications of bio-sourced cellulose nanocrystal composites. Prog. Poly. Sci. 2020, 103, 101221.
- Kusnetsov, A.; Kumar, G.; Ardagh, M. A.; Tsapatsis, M.; Zhang, Q.; Dauenhauer, P. J. On the economics and process design of renewable butadiene from biomass-derived furfural. ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng. 2020, 8, 3273–3282.
- Saxon, D. J.; Luke, A. M.; Sajjad, H.; Tolman, W. B.; Reineke, T. M. Next-generation polymers: Isosorbide as a renewable alternative. Prog. Poly. Sci. 2020, 101, 101196.
- Fonseca, L. R.; Dirlam, P. T.; Hillmyer, M. A. Atom-economical, one-pot, self-initiated photopolymerization of lactose methacrylate for biobased hydrogels. ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng. 2020, 8, 4606–4613.
- Batiste, D. C.; Meyersohn, M. S.; Watts, A.; Hillmyer, M. A. Efficient polymerization of methyl-ε- caprolactone mixtures to access sustainable aliphatic polyesters. Macromolecules 2020, 53, 1795–1808.
Primary data available here. - Kim, H. J.; Jin, K.; Shim, J.; Dean, W.; Hillmyer, M. A.; Ellison, C. J. Sustainable triblock copolymers as tunable and degradable pressure sensitive adhesives. ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng. 2020, Just Accepted.
- Sajjad, H.; Tolman, W. B.; Reineke, T. M. Block copolymer pressure-sensitive adhesives derived from fatty acids and triacetic acid lactone. ACS Appl. Polym. Mater. 2020, 2, 2719–2728.
- Xu, S.; Wang, Y.; Hoye, T. R. Poly(4-ketovalerolactone) from levulinic acid: Synthesis and hydrolytic degradation. Macromolecules 2020, 53, 4952–4959.
Primary data available here. - Fahnhorst, G. W.; De Hoe, G. X.; Hillmyer, M. A.; Hoye, T. R. 4-Carboalkoxylated polyvalerolactones from malic acid: Tough and degradable polyesters. Macromolecules 2020, 53, 3194–3201.
Primary data available here.Kim, H. J.; Reddi, Y.; Cramer, C. J.; Hillmyer, M. A.; Ellison, C. J. Readily degradable aromatic polyesters from salicylic acid. ACS Macro Lett. 2020, 9, 96–102.
INVESTIGATORS
Michelle Chang
Christopher Cramer
Paul Dauenhauer
William Dichtel
Northwestern
Research Interests: COFs; Crystaline Films; 2D Polymers; Water Purification; Nanostructured Materials
View ProfileJennifer Dunn
Northwestern
Research Interests: Emerging technologies and their energy and environmental impacts
View ProfileBrett Fors
Cornell
Research Interests: Development of new synthetic methods and catalyst systems to control polymer architecture, composition, and function
View ProfileMarc Hillmyer
Thomas Hoye
Theresa Reineke
Minnesota
Research Interests: The synthetic design, chemical characterization, and biological study of sophisticated macromolecules.
View ProfileWilliam Tolman
Ian Tonks
Minnesota
Research Interests: Designing new organometallic catalytic reactions that use Earth-abundant metals
View ProfileBess Vlaisavljevich
South Dakota
Research Interests: Computational studies of the decarbonylation of fatty acid methyl esters (FAMES) – Catalysis involving multiple metal centers – Complex electronic structure
View ProfileHIGH-PERFORMANCE SUSTAINABLE PLASTICS AND ELASTOMERS
OVERVIEW
CSP researchers work to discover new sustainable polymers with precisely controlled molecular structures and to establish crucial relationships between chemical structure, morphology, and performance properties.
RESEARCH PORTFOLIO
Catalysis, high-throughput experimentation, theoretical studies, mechanistic studies of polymerization processes, polymer properties, polymer morphology
FOCUS: Broaden the scope of existing polymerization strategies and develop entirely new methods to discover new sustainable polymers with advanced properties that are better than their petroleum-based counterparts.
FEATURE PUBLICATIONS
- Lipinski, B. M.; Walker, K. L.; Clayman, N. E.; Morris, L. S.; Jugovic, T. M. E.; Roessler, A. G.; Getzler, Y. D. Y. L.; MacMillan, S. N.; Zare, R. N.; Zimmerman, P. M.; Waymouth, R. M.; Coates, G. W. Mechanistic study of isotactic poly(propylene oxide) synthesis using a tethered bimetallic chromium salen catalyst. ACS Catalysis 2020, 10, 8960–8967.
- Shao, H.; Reddi, Y.; Cramer, C. J. Modeling the mechanism of CO2/cyclohexene oxide copolymerization catalyzed by chiral zinc β‑diiminates: Factors affecting reactivity and isotacticity. ACS Catal., 2020, 10, 8870–8879.
- Luke, A. M.; Peterson, A.; Chiniforoush, S.; Mandal, M.; Popowski, Y. Sajjad, H.; Bouchey, C. J.; Shopov, D. Y.; Graziano, B. J.; Yao, L. J.; Cramer, C. J.; Reineke, T. M.; Tolman, W. B. Mechanism of initiation stereocontrol in polymerization of rac-lactide by aluminum complexes supported by indolide-imine ligands. Macromolecules 2020, 53, 1809–1818.
- Fonseca, L. R.; Dirlam, P. T.; Hillmyer, M. A. Atom-economical, one-pot, self-initiated photopolymerization of lactose methacrylate for biobased hydrogels. ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng. 2020, 8, 4606–4613.
- Batiste, D. C.; Meyersohn, M. S.; Watts, A.; Hillmyer, M. A. Efficient polymerization of methyl-ε- caprolactone mixtures to access sustainable aliphatic polyesters. Macromolecules 2020, 53, 1795–1808.
Primary data available here. - Kim, H. J.; Jin, K.; Shim, J.; Dean, W.; Hillmyer, M. A.; Ellison, C. J. Sustainable triblock copolymers as tunable and degradable pressure sensitive adhesives. ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng. 2020, Just Accepted.
- Sajjad, H.; Tolman, W. B.; Reineke, T. M. Block copolymer pressure-sensitive adhesives derived from fatty acids and triacetic acid lactone. ACS Appl. Polym. Mater. 2020, 2, 2719–2728.
- Xu, S.; Wang, Y.; Hoye, T. R. Poly(4-ketovalerolactone) from levulinic acid: Synthesis and hydrolytic degradation. Macromolecules 2020, 53, 4952–4959.
Primary data available here. - Fahnhorst, G. W.; De Hoe, G. X.; Hillmyer, M. A.; Hoye, T. R. 4-Carboalkoxylated polyvalerolactones from malic acid: Tough and degradable polyesters. Macromolecules 2020, 53, 3194–3201.
Primary data available here.Kim, H. J.; Reddi, Y.; Cramer, C. J.; Hillmyer, M. A.; Ellison, C. J. Readily degradable aromatic polyesters from salicylic acid. ACS Macro Lett. 2020, 9, 96–102. - Lipinski, B. M.; Morris, L. S.; Silberstein, M. N.; Coates, G. W. Isotactic poly(propylene oxide): A photodegradable polymer with strain hardening properties. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2020, 142, 6800–6806.
INVESTIGATORS
Christopher Alabi
Frank Bates
Michelle Calabrese
Minnesota
Research Interests: Rheology, scattering techniques, and polymer and nanoparticle synthesis
View ProfileGeoffrey Coates
Christopher Cramer
William Dichtel
Northwestern
Research Interests: COFs; Crystaline Films; 2D Polymers; Water Purification; Nanostructured Materials
View ProfileRobert DiStasio
Cornell
Research Interests: Electronic structure theory in complex condense-phase environments
View ProfileBrett Fors
Cornell
Research Interests: Development of new synthetic methods and catalyst systems to control polymer architecture, composition, and function
View ProfileMarc Hillmyer
Jessica Lamb
Anne LaPointe
Theresa Reineke
Minnesota
Research Interests: The synthetic design, chemical characterization, and biological study of sophisticated macromolecules.
View ProfileStuart Rowan
University of Chicago
Research Interests: Polymer Synthesis; Cellulose Nanocrystals; Composites
View ProfileWilliam Tolman
Ian Tonks
Minnesota
Research Interests: Designing new organometallic catalytic reactions that use Earth-abundant metals
View ProfileJane Wissinger
Minnesota
Research Interests: Green chemistry; Renewable polymers; Laboratory experiments
View ProfileSUSTAINABLE POLYMER DEGRADATION, CHEMICAL RECYCLING, AND COMPATIBILIZATION
OVERVIEW
CSP researchers work to discover and establish polymeric architectures that provide superior performance while in use and have innocuous end-lives including controlled degradation, chemical and traditional recycling pathways.
RESEARCH PORTFOLIO
Polymer architecture, degradation, chemical recycling, recycling
FOCUS: Study and improve the performance properties of polymers, in particular as generated by the first two Grand Challenge Project Areas.
FEATURE PUBLICATIONS
- Klimovica, K.; Pan, S.; Lin, T.-W.; Peng, X.; Ellison, C. J.; LaPointe, A. M.; Bates, F. S.; Coates, G. W. Compatibilization of iPP/HDPE blends with PE-g–iPP graft copolymers. ACS Macro Lett. 2020, 9, 1161–1166.
- Elling, B. R.; Dichtel, W. R. Reprocessable cross-linked polymer networks: Are associative exchange mechanisms desirable? ACS Cent. Sci., 2020 Article ASAP.
- Ertem, S. P.; Onuoha, C. E.; Wang, H.; Hillmyer, M. A.; Reineke, T. M.; Lodge, T. P.; Bates, F. S. Hydrogenolysis of linear low-density polyethylene during heterogeneous catalytic hydrogen-deuterium exchange. Macromolecules 2020, 53, 6043–6055.
- Sheppard, D. T.; Jin, K.; Hamachi, L. S.; Dean, W.; Fortman, D. J.; Ellison, C. J.; Dichtel, W. R. Reprocessing postconsumer polyurethane foam using carbamate exchange catalysis and twin-screw extrusion. ACS Cent. Sci. 2020, 6, 921–927.
- Hoff, E. A.; De Hoe, G. X.; Mulvaney, C. M.; Hillmyer, M. A.; Alabi, C. A. Thiol-ene networks from sequence-defined polyurethane macromers. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2020, 142, 6729–6736.
- Snyder, R. L.; Lidston, C. A.; De Hoe, G. X.; Parvulescu, M. J. S.; Hillmyer, M. A.; Coates, G. C. Mechanically robust and reprocessable imine exchange networks from modular polyester pre-polymers. Polym. Chem. 2020, Advance Article.
- Nomura, K.; Peng, X.; Kim, H.; Jin, K.; Kim, H.-J.; Bratton, A.; Bond, C. R.; Broman, A.; Miller, K. M.; Ellison, C. J. Multiblock copolymers for recycling polyethylene-poly(ethylene terephthalate) mixed waste. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2020, 12, 9726–9735.
- Sifri, R.; Padilla Velez, O.; Coates, G. W.; Fors, B. P. Controlling the shape of molecular weight distributions in coordination polymerization and its impact on physical properties. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2020, 142, 1443–1448.
- Kim, H. J.; Jin, K.; Shim, J.; Dean, W.; Hillmyer, M. A.; Ellison, C. J. Sustainable triblock copolymers as tunable and degradable pressure sensitive adhesives. ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng. 2020, Just Accepted.
- Sajjad, H.; Tolman, W. B.; Reineke, T. M. Block copolymer pressure-sensitive adhesives derived from fatty acids and triacetic acid lactone. ACS Appl. Polym. Mater. 2020, 2, 2719–2728.
- Xu, S.; Wang, Y.; Hoye, T. R. Poly(4-ketovalerolactone) from levulinic acid: Synthesis and hydrolytic degradation. Macromolecules 2020, 53, 4952–4959.
Primary data available here. - Fahnhorst, G. W.; De Hoe, G. X.; Hillmyer, M. A.; Hoye, T. R. 4-Carboalkoxylated polyvalerolactones from malic acid: Tough and degradable polyesters. Macromolecules 2020, 53, 3194–3201.
Primary data available here.Kim, H. J.; Reddi, Y.; Cramer, C. J.; Hillmyer, M. A.; Ellison, C. J. Readily degradable aromatic polyesters from salicylic acid. ACS Macro Lett. 2020, 9, 96–102. - Lipinski, B. M.; Morris, L. S.; Silberstein, M. N.; Coates, G. W. Isotactic poly(propylene oxide): A photodegradable polymer with strain hardening properties. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2020, 142, 6800–6806.
INVESTIGATORS
Frank Bates
Michelle Calabrese
Minnesota
Research Interests: Rheology, scattering techniques, and polymer and nanoparticle synthesis
View ProfileGeoffrey Coates
William Dichtel
Northwestern
Research Interests: COFs; Crystaline Films; 2D Polymers; Water Purification; Nanostructured Materials
View ProfileJennifer Dunn
Northwestern
Research Interests: Emerging technologies and their energy and environmental impacts
View ProfileChristopher Ellison
Brett Fors
Cornell
Research Interests: Development of new synthetic methods and catalyst systems to control polymer architecture, composition, and function
View ProfileMarc Hillmyer
Julia Kalow
Anne LaPointe
Theresa Reineke
University of Minnesota
Research Interests: The synthetic design, chemical characterization, and biological study of sophisticated macromolecules.
View ProfileStuart Rowan
University of Chicago
Research Interests: Polymer Synthesis; Cellulose Nanocrystals; Composites
View ProfileWilliam Tolman
Washington University in St. Louis
Research Interests: Mechanistic studies of polymerization of renewable monomers by metal complexes; development of catalytic methods for conversion of renewable feedstocks to useful monomers.
View ProfileBoya Xiong
Minnesota
Research Interests: Elucidate the fundamental mechanism of polymer degradation
View Profile