Geminal disubstitution of cyclic monomers is known to improve the chemical recyclability of their polymers, but usually at the expense of performance properties. Now, geminal disubstitution of a six-membered lactone has been shown to synergistically enable chemical recyclability back to the monomer and enhance the materials performance of the resulting polyesters, with properties that rival or exceed those of polyethylene.
A circular polyester platform based on simple gem-disubstituted valerolactones