Chemical recycling of polymers is an elegant approach to achieve a circular economy and address the sustainability and end-of-life issues of plastics. Herein, we report the ring-opening polymerization of a bicyclic lactone that is easily accessible from norcamphor. High molecular weight polyesters (M_n up to 164 kg mol^–1) are obtained using ZnEt₂ as catalyst, while the polymerizability of the monomer is good even at high temperatures. More importantly, the polymers can be completely depolymerized under thermolysis conditions to selectively recover the pristine monomer. Thus, the monomer design strategy of using ring-fused/hybridized lactones enables an innovative monomer–polymer system that shows both high polymerizability and high depolymerizability.

中文翻译：

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双环内酯的开环聚合：从具有完全化学可回收性的 Norcamphor 衍生的聚酯

聚合物的化学回收是实现循环经济和解决塑料的可持续性和报废问题的一种优雅方法。在此，我们报告了一种双环内酯的开环聚合反应，这种双环内酯很容易从去甲樟脑中获得。使用 ZnEt ₂获得高分子量聚酯（M _n高达 164 kg mol ^{–1 ）}作为催化剂，而单体即使在高温下也具有良好的聚合性。更重要的是，聚合物可以在热解条件下完全解聚，以选择性地回收原始单体。因此，使用环稠合/杂化内酯的单体设计策略使创新的单体-聚合物体系能够同时显示出高聚合性和高解聚性。