Covalent Adaptable Networks through Dynamic N,S-Acetal Chemistry: Toward Recyclable CO2-Based Thermosets

Finding new chemistry platforms for easily recyclable polymers has become a key challenge to face environmental concerns and the growing plastics demand. Here, we report a dynamic chemistry between CO2-sourced alkylidene oxazolidones and thiols, delivering circular non-isocyanate polyurethane networks embedding N,S-acetal bonds. The production of oxazolidone monomers from CO2 is facile and scalable starting from cheap reagents. Their copolymerization with a polythiol occurs under mild conditions in the presence of a catalytic amount of acid to furnish polymer networks. The polymer structure is easily tuned by virtue of monomer design, translating into a wide panel of mechanical properties similar to commodity plastics, ranging from PDMS-like elastomers [with Young's modulus (E) of 2.9 MPa and elongation at break (εbreak) of 159%] to polystyrene-like rigid plastics (with E = 2400 MPa, εbreak = 3%). The highly dissociative nature of the N,S-acetal bonds is demonstrated and exploited to offer three different recycling scenarios to the thermosets: (1) mechanical recycling by compression molding, extrusion, or injection molding─with multiple recycling (at least 10 times) without any material property deterioration, (2) chemical recycling through depolymerization, followed by repolymerization, also applicable to composites, and (3) upcycling of two different oxazolidone-based thermosets into a single one with distinct properties. This work highlights a new facile and scalable chemical platform for designing highly dynamic polymer networks containing elusive oxazolidone motifs. The versatility of this chemistry shows great potential for the preparation of materials (including composites) of tuneable structures and properties, with multiple end-of-life scenarios.

Facile Access to CO2 -Sourced Polythiocarbonate Dynamic Networks And Their Potential As Solid-State Electrolytes For Lithium Metal Batteries

Poly(monothiocarbonate)s are an interesting class of sulfur-containing materials whose application as solid polymer electrolytes was barely studied, certainly due to the elusive production of diversified polymer architectures. Herein, a new liquid CO₂ -sourced bis(α-alkylidene cyclic carbonate) monomer was designed at high yield to allow its one-step and solvent-free copolymerization with thiols to produce linear and cross-linked polymers in mild conditions. The influence of the monomer structure on the thermal properties and the ionic conductivity of linear polymers was assessed. The polymer network showed to be thermally re-processable owing to the dynamic nature of the monothiocarbonate bonds. A solid polymer electrolyte was easily obtained from the cross-linked material when combined with LiTFSI salt. The solid polymer electrolyte was characterized by an ionic conductivity reaching 6×10^-6  S cm^-1 at room temperature with a lithium transference number of 0.37 and a wide electrochemical stability window (4.0 V vs Li⁰ /Li⁺ ) valid for lithium cycling. This work thus reports an attractive valorizing approach for carbon dioxide to deliver under mild operating conditions poly(monothiocarbonate)-containing novel covalent adaptable network materials of high potential for energy applications, especially as solid electrolytes for batteries.

Facile construction of functional poly(monothiocarbonate)s copolymers under mild operating conditions

The installation of both oxazolidone and thiocarbonate linkages within a single polymer backbone remains elusive by simple procedures under mild conditions. In this work, we report the construction of copolymers...

Role of redox-active axial ligands of metal porphyrins adsorbed at solid-liquid interfaces in a liquid-STM setup

In a liquid-STM setup environment, the redox behavior of manganese porphyrins was studied at various solid-liquid interfaces. In the presence of a solution of Mn(III)Cl porphyrins in 1-phenyloctane, which was placed at a conductive surface, large and constant additional currents relative to a set tunneling current were observed, which varied with the magnitude of the applied bias voltage. These currents occurred regardless of the type of surface (HOPG or Au(111)) or tip material (PtIr, Au or W). The additional currents were ascribed to the occurrence of redox reactions in which chloride is oxidized to chlorine and the Mn(III) center of the porphyrin moiety is reduced to Mn(II). The resulting Mn(II) porphyrin products were identified by UV-vis analysis of the liquid phase. For solutions of Mn(III) porphyrins with non-redox active acetate instead of chloride axial ligands, the currents remained absent.

Self-Assembly of Covalently Linked Porphyrin Dimers at the Solid-Liquid Interface

The synthesis and surface self-assembly behavior of two types of metal-porphyrin dimers is described. The first dimer type consists of two porphyrins linked via a rigid conjugated spacer, and the second type has an alkyne linker, which allows rotation of the porphyrin moieties with respect to each other. The conjugated dimers were equipped with two copper or two manganese centers, while the flexible dimers allowed a modular built-up that also made the incorporation of two different metal centers possible. The self-assembly of the new porphyrin dimers at a solid–liquid interface was investigated at the single-molecule scale using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). All dimers formed monolayers, of which the stability and the internal degree of ordering of the molecules depended on the metal centers in the porphyrins. While in all monolayers the dimers were oriented coplanar with respect to the underlying surface (‘face-on’), the flexible dimer containing a manganese and a copper center could be induced, via the application of a voltage pulse in the STM setup, to self-assemble into monolayers in which the porphyrin dimers adopted a non-common perpendicular (‘edge-on’) geometry with respect to the surface.

Polymorphism in porphyrin monolayers: the relation between adsorption configuration and molecular conformation

Self-assembled monolayers of meso-5,10,15,20-tetrakis(undecyl)porphyrin copper(II) on a graphite/1-octanoic acid interface have been studied by Scanning Tunnelling Microscopy. Four distinct polymorphs were observed, varying in their unit cell size. Arrays of unit cells of the various polymorphs seamlessly connect to each other via shared unit cell vectors. The monolayers are not commensurate, but coincident with the underlying graphite substrate. The seamless transition between the polymorphs is proposed to be the result of an adaptation of the molecular conformations in the polymorphs and at the boundaries, which is enabled by the conformational freedom of the alkyl tails of these molecules.

Controlled templating of porphyrins by a molecular command layer

The copper porphyrin (5,10,15,20-tetraundecylporphyrinato)copper(II) can be templated in a well-defined arrangement using p-(hexadecyloxycarbonyl)phenylacetylene as a command layer on graphite. The bicomponent system was characterized at the submolecular level at a solid/liquid interface by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). It is proposed that the layer of copper porphyrins is templated on top of the command layer in a hierarchical fashion, via a combination of intermolecular π-π stacking and van der Waals interactions. A very subtle effect, i.e., a superstructure in the alkyl chain region of the phenylacetylene monolayers, was identified as a decisive factor for the templating process.