Overcoming the Challenge of Plastic Degradation! New Simple Chemical Process Achieves Efficient Green Upgrading of Conventional Plastics Degradation

Recently, researchers from the University of Edinburgh and Germany’s RPTU University Kaiserslautern-Landau have developed a new process that can convert traditional plastics, such as food packaging and 3D printing materials, into polythioesters. This biodegradable plastic has unique physicochemical properties and degrades faster than existing similar eco-friendly materials.

This innovation tackles a major environmental challenge: currently, about 99% of the plastic circulating globally is non-biodegradable. Although there are eco-friendly alternatives to plastic on the market, most degrade slowly or require high temperatures and strong corrosive chemicals to fully break down.

Simple and efficient modification and conversion technology

The new process can alter the chemical structure of existing plastics through a simple one-step reaction: researchers use thioacylation reagents to remove oxygen atoms bonded to carbon atoms and replace them with sulfur atoms.

Long-chain polysulfide ester molecules are formed by atomic substitution to generate carbon-sulfur bonds, which have bond energies significantly lower than the carbon-oxygen bonds of conventional plastics. The weakening of these bonds not only alters the physicochemical properties of the material but also greatly enhances degradation efficiency.

Jennifer Garden, PhD, co-lead of the study and a member of the University of Edinburgh’s School of Chemistry, said that the thio-modification of polyesters has long been an industry challenge: polyesters are less reactive than most polymers, making it difficult to prepare polythioesters using traditional synthetic routes.

"The most exciting aspect of this research is that we have successfully established a new synthetic scheme, opening up a series of research paths for sulfur-containing new materials," she said. "The team is highlying the subsequent exploration directions, relying on this technological breakthrough to tap into various application potentials and laying the foundation for future research in this promising field."

The process is scalable for practical implementation and has a wide range of application scenarios.

The study selected polycaprolactone for validation experiments. This material is a mature biodegradable plastic widely used in food packaging, 3D printing, and medical implant devices. The experiments showed that the entire process is easy to scale up industrially and can rapidly modify plastic raw materials in large quantities.

This technology is highly versatile and is not limited to a single type of plastic. It can upcycle various plastics and has broad application potential across diverse industries.

The related findings were published in *Chem Circularity*, a new Cell Press journal focused on sustainability. This project was jointly funded by UK Research and Innovation, the Royal Society, the French National Research Agency, and the French National Centre for Scientific Research.

Subsequent R&D and Environmental Safety Considerations

Despite the promising outlook of this breakthrough, the research team noted that further investigation is still needed into the environmental impact of polythioester degradation products, and that such studies are crucial to ensuring the long-term safety, environmental friendliness, and sustainability of the new material.

In her summary, Jennifer Garden mentioned, “Collaborating with this team was an immensely enjoyable experience. The members’ strong passion for research, execution, and professional expertise made the entire R&D process truly engaging and rewarding. It was an honor to work alongside such an outstanding group of researchers.”

The University of Edinburgh has long remained among the world’s leading universities in environmental and social responsibility, continuously leveraging research, teaching, industry-academia collaboration, and technological innovation to support global sustainable development. Addressing climate and environmental disasters is also central to the university’s efforts to achieve its goal of carbon-neutral operations by 2040.