CAS: Accessing Functional Materials via Polymer Electroediting

About This Grant

With the support of the Macromolecular, Supramolecular, and Nanochemistry Program in the Division of Chemistry, Dr. Brantley of The University of Tennessee, Knoxville will explore how electricity can be used to convert plastics into new chemical building blocks. Currently, there is a critical need to develop new methods to recycle or upcycle the large quantities of waste plastics that are generated every year. Dr. Brantley and his team will investigate the use of electrochemistry to change the physical and chemical properties of plastics in an effort to create valuable products from what would otherwise be considered waste. The introduction of new functional groups onto otherwise inert polymers has the potential to make them useful for a variety of new applications, including as coatings, adhesives, or even high-performance materials. Dr. Brantley and his team will also explore how electrochemistry can be used to generate reactive groups that will spontaneously break waste plastics down into discrete building blocks. These building blocks are important because they can be used to make a wide range of new materials, such as new plastics, fine chemicals, and possibly even therapeutic agents. The overarching goal of this project is to understand fundamental electrochemical reactions that could one day be used to transform large quantities of plastic waste into new, valuable products. This program will also aim to enhance public awareness of science through a social media outreach program that explains scientific principles with demonstrations. Dr. Brantley will also develop new educational initiatives to help students better understand challenging chemistry concepts. The development of novel methods for polymer backbone editing are crucial to not only prepare advanced materials with bespoke properties, but also to transform extant macromolecular substrates into value-added products. Dr. Brantley will expand the polymer modification toolbox by exploring the mechanism and scope of polymer (for example, polyolefins, polyesters, and polyurethanes) editing strategies involving radical ions. This program aims to probe how electrochemically generated radical-cations can promote polymer functionalization via H-atom transfer, with an emphasis on reactions that can install stimulus-responsive motifs. Dr. Brantley will also investigate electrochemical reductions of polyesters and polyurethanes to access macroradical-anions. He will seek to understand how spontaneous mesolytic cleavage of these species can promote polymer deconstruction into monomers and other valuable synthons. This research is expected to significantly expand the chemical space available for polymer functionalization and reveal new fundamental insights into the chemistry of underexplored reactive intermediates in polymer science. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.