The world is witnessing a growing interest in the utilization of waste materials to reduce environmental burden, add product value and promote sustainability. Such noble goals are being supported by the implementation of a number of approaches, including green chemistry. Currently, accumulation of large amounts of waste elemental sulfur, a by-product produced in gas and petroleum refineries, is posing an environmental concern and requires immediate intervention to search for new routes to make high-value materials from it. Inverse vulcanization is a new copolymerization technique allowing formation of stable sulfur-based polymers (sulfur copolymers) against the depolymerization of sulfur chains. Such a new class of polymers has demonstrated great properties for several environmental and renewable-energy applications. This paper reviews the advances in the evolution of sulfur copolymers prepared by inverse vulcanization with various monomers, including not only petro-based monomers but also renewable monomers as well as vegetable oils. Several applications of the obtained sulfur-based polymers are discussed. The challenges and future research directions to develop new polymers further and extend their applications are elaborated.

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通过反向硫化的硫基聚合物：促进绿色化学的新途径

为了减少环境负担，增加产品价值并促进可持续发展，世界对废料的利用越来越感兴趣。这样的崇高目标得到了包括绿色化学在内的许多方法的实施的支持。当前，天然气和石油精炼厂产生的副产品大量废元素硫的积累引起了环境方面的关注，需要立即进行干预以寻找新的途径以从中制备高价值的材料。逆硫化是一种新的共聚技术，可形成稳定的基于硫的聚合物（含硫共聚物），防止硫链解聚。这种新型的聚合物已在多种环境和可再生能源应用中展现出了卓越的性能。本文回顾了通过用各种单体逆硫化制备的硫共聚物的进展，这些单体不仅包括石油基单体，还包括可再生单体以及植物油。讨论了所得硫基聚合物的几种应用。阐述了进一步开发新型聚合物并扩展其应用的挑战和未来的研究方向。