Triggered by raised environmental awareness and the rising requirements for sustainable polymers such as degradable or recyclable polymers, studies on ring-opening (co)polymerization (ROP/ROCP) of (bio-based) cyclic monomers (e.g., cyclic esters, lactides, epoxides etc.) have been booming in recent years. Renewable five-membered γ-butyrolactone (γBL) and derivatives would thus be a desirable feedstock to produce poly(γ-butyrolactone) (PγBL) and different (bio-based) functional polyesters. Their copolymerization with other cyclic monomers could also afford an alternative to tune the properties of the resulting materials. Although γBL was traditionally regarded “non-polymerizable”, some progresses were made recently concerning the ROP/ROCP of γBL and derivatives. More importantly, some polyesters could be totally depolymerized back to their monomers by thermal or chemical treatment. This review is specially focused on ROP of γ-lactones and their copolymerization with other cyclic monomers by different catalytic/initiating systems, including Lewis/Brønsted acids, organic bases and alkali metal compounds, organometallic compounds, and cooperative bicomponent catalytic systems. The depolymerization process of some obtained polyesters is also discussed.

受到环境意识的提高和对可持续聚合物（例如可降解或可回收聚合物）的要求不断提高的触发，对（生物基）环状单体（例如环状酯，丙交酯，环氧化物）的开环（共）聚合（ROP / ROCP）研究等）近年来一直在蓬勃发展。可再生五元γ丁内酯（γ BL），从而衍生物将是所希望的原料以生产聚（γ丁内酯）（P γ BL）和不同的（基于生物的）官能团的聚酯。它们与其他环状单体的共聚还可以提供一种替代方法来调节所得材料的性能。虽然γBL是传统上被认为“非聚合”，分别取得了一些进展最近有关的ROP / ROCP γ BL和衍生物。更重要的是，某些聚酯可以通过热处理或化学处理完全解聚为单体。这篇综述特别关注γ-内酯的ROP以及它们通过不同的催化/引发体系与其他环状单体的共聚，包括路易斯/布朗斯台德酸，有机碱和碱金属化合物，有机金属化合物以及协同双组分催化体系。还讨论了一些获得的聚酯的解聚过程。