Polyurethane thermosets are indispensable to modern life, but their widespread use has become an increasingly pressing environmental burden. Current recycling approaches are economically unattractive and/or lead to recycled products of inferior properties, making their large-scale implementation unviable. Here we report a highly efficient chemical strategy for upcycling thermoset polyurethane foams that yields products of much higher economic values than the original material. Starting from a commodity foam, we show that the polyurethane network is chemically fragmented into a dissolvable mixture under mild conditions. We demonstrate that three-dimensional photo-printable resins with tunable material mechanical properties—which are superior to commercial high-performance counterparts—can be formulated with the addition of various network reforming additives. Our direct upcycling of commodity foams is economically attractive and can be implemented with ease, and the principle can be expanded to other commodity thermosets.

聚氨酯热固性材料是现代生活不可或缺的，但其广泛使用已成为日益紧迫的环境负担。目前的回收方法在经济上没有吸引力和/或导致回收的产品性能较差，使其大规模实施不可行。在这里，我们报告了一种用于热固性聚氨酯泡沫升级改造的高效化学策略，该策略产生的产品比原始材料具有更高的经济价值。从商品泡沫开始，我们证明聚氨酯网络在温和条件下通过化学方式裂解成可溶解的混合物。我们证明，可以通过添加各种网络重整添加剂来配制具有可调节材料机械性能的三维照片打印树脂（优于商业高性能同类产品）。我们对商品泡沫的直接升级回收在经济上具有吸引力，并且可以轻松实施，并且该原理可以扩展到其他商品热固性材料。