Design and syntheses of functional carbon dioxide-based polycarbonates via ternary copolymerization

Carbon dioxide (CO₂) is an important heat-trapping gas, or greenhouse gas, that comes from the extraction and burning of fossil fuels. On the other hand, plastic is widely used for making various products, such as medical devices and packaging bags, but it causes pollution that damages human health and the environment. Therefore, biodegradable plastic materials synthesized by using CO₂ is one of the most desirable alternatives of traditional non-biodegradable plastic materials to alleviate anthropogenic CO₂ and non-degradable plastic pollution. Particularly, CO₂-based poly(propylene carbonate) (PPC) has received increasing attention owing to its good functionalization modification advantages and its potential in the large-scale utilization of CO₂. We review the synthetic routes of PPCs through incorporations of different functionalized third monomers to the polymer chains and their effects on properties of newly functionalized PPCs. The results show that the copolymerization of CO₂ and propylene oxide (PO) provides a way to utilize excess CO₂ for producing biodegradable and environmentally friendly polymerization products (i.e., CO₂-based PPC). This offers a novel strategy for the preparation of new and potentially sustainable plastic materials.