Development of Rapid Environment Degradable and Recyclable Poly(1,3-propylene glycol oxalate) <italic style="font-style: italic">via</italic> Ring-opening Polymerization of Seven-membered Cyclic Oxalate

Yue-Yuan Qian; Xiang-Bin Sun; Ya-Lei Liu; Zhi-Bo Li

doi:10.1007/s10118-026-3725-3

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Development of Rapid Environment Degradable and Recyclable Poly(1,3-propylene glycol oxalate) via Ring-opening Polymerization of Seven-membered Cyclic Oxalate

RESEARCH ARTICLE | Updated：2026-09-23

- Development of Rapid Environment Degradable and Recyclable Poly(1,3-propylene glycol oxalate) via Ring-opening Polymerization of Seven-membered Cyclic Oxalate
- Development of Rapid Environment Degradable and Recyclable Poly(1,3-propylene glycol oxalate) via Ring-opening Polymerization of Seven-membered Cyclic Oxalate
- Chinese Journal of Polymer Science 2026年44卷第10期页码：3366-3374
- Affiliations：
  
  a.Shandong Key Laboratory of High Performance Polyolefin Materials and Recycling; College of Polymer Science and Engineering, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266042, China
  b.College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Zaozhuang University, Zaozhuang 277160, China
  c.State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering and Low-carbon Technology, College of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
- Author bio：
  
  sunxiangbinld@163.com (X.B.S.)
  zbli@qust.edu.cn, zbli@zju.edu.cn (Z.B.L.)
- Funds：
  
  This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China-Joint Funding with Liaoning Province (No. U24A20558), and State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering, and Low-carbon Technology (No. SKL-ChE-25T01).;Zhi-Bo Li is an associate editor for Chinese Journal of Polymer Science and was not involved in the editorial review or thedecision to publish this article. The authors declare no interest conflict.Electronic supplementary information (ESI) is available free of charge in the online version of this article at http://doi.org/10.1007/s10118-026-3725-3.The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
- DOI：10.1007/s10118-026-3725-3
  中图分类号：
- 收稿：2026-03-23，
  
  修回：2026-04-15，
  
  录用：2026-04-21，
  
  网络首发：2026-07-20，
  
  纸质出版：2026-10-05
- Accepted：
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Qian, Y. Y.; Sun, X. B.; Liu, Y. L.; Li, Z. B. Development of rapid environment degradable and recyclable poly(1,3-propylene glycol oxalate) via ring-opening polymerization of seven-membered cyclic oxalate. Chinese J. Polym. Sci. 2026, 44, 3366–3374

Yue-Yuan Qian, Xiang-Bin Sun, Ya-Lei Liu, et al. Development of Rapid Environment Degradable and Recyclable Poly(1,3-propylene glycol oxalate) via Ring-opening Polymerization of Seven-membered Cyclic Oxalate[J]. Chinese Journal of Polymer Science, 2026, 44(10): 3366-3374. DOI: 10.1007/s10118-026-3725-3.
Qian, Y. Y.; Sun, X. B.; Liu, Y. L.; Li, Z. B. Development of rapid environment degradable and recyclable poly(1,3-propylene glycol oxalate) via ring-opening polymerization of seven-membered cyclic oxalate. Chinese J. Polym. Sci. 2026, 44, 3366–3374 DOI： 10.1007/s10118-026-3725-3.

Yue-Yuan Qian, Xiang-Bin Sun, Ya-Lei Liu, et al. Development of Rapid Environment Degradable and Recyclable Poly(1,3-propylene glycol oxalate) via Ring-opening Polymerization of Seven-membered Cyclic Oxalate[J]. Chinese Journal of Polymer Science, 2026, 44(10): 3366-3374. DOI: 10.1007/s10118-026-3725-3. DOI：

摘要

Seven-membered cyclic oxalate (POx) is made from cheap dimethyl oxalate and bio-based 1

3-propanediol. The ring-opening polymerization of POx yields high-molecular-weight PPOx

which features rapid environmental degradation and recyclability.

Abstract

As plastic pollution has become increasingly severe

the development of recyclable and rapidly degradable polyesters has significant practical value and significance. In this study

seven-membered cyclic 1

3-propylene glycol oxalate (POx) was successfully synthesized through a two-step polycondensation-depolymerization method using dimethyl oxalate (a low-cost and readily accessible bulk chemical) and bio-based 1

3-propylene glycol as the starting materials. Using Sn(Oct)

s the catalyst

high-molecular-weight poly(1

3-propylene oxalate) (PPOx) was efficiently prepared

via

ring-opening polymerization (ROP) of POx. This ROP demonstrated excellent reactivity

attaining a monomer conversion up to 95% within 10 min

and PPOx had a maximum intrinsic viscosity (

) of 1.06 dL/g. Furthermore

the prepared PPOx could be catalytically depolymerized to enable efficient recovery of the POx monomer

with a yield of 60% and a purity of 98%. The degradation performance tests indicated that PPOx exhibited rapid degradation

reaching a degradation rate of up to 99% within 50 days. Owing to the innovative selection of raw materials and the design of a closed-loop process

this study provides a new economical and sustainable strategy for reducing dependence on petroleum resources

offering valuable insights into the development of recyclable and rapidly degradable polyesters.

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Development of Rapid Environment Degradable and Recyclable Poly(1,3-propylene glycol oxalate) via Ring-opening Polymerization of Seven-membered Cyclic Oxalate

Development of Rapid Environment Degradable and Recyclable Poly(1,3-propylene glycol oxalate) via Ring-opening Polymerization of Seven-membered Cyclic Oxalate

DOI：10.1007/s10118-026-3725-3

摘要

Abstract

关键词

Keywords

references