New family of polymers can be easily recycled and even upcycled

Recycling box filled with clear plastic bottles

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 Dynamic covalent bonds means polymers can be taken apart by acid

A team at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, US, has developed a new family of polymers that brings us closer to the dream of closed-loop, zero-waste plastics. To achieve this they used a family of molecules called polydiketoenamines, held together by dynamic covalent bonds that, while very strong, can be easily broken down using small amounts of acid.