Oxalate esters and isosorbide serve as intriguing polymer building blocks, as they can be sourced from renewable resources, such as CO₂ and glucose, and the resulting polyesters offer outstanding material properties. However, the low reactivity of the secondary hydroxyl groups makes it difficult to generate high-molecular-weight polymers from isosorbide. Combining diaryl oxalates with isosorbide appears to be a promising approach to produce high-molecular-weight isosorbide-based polyoxalates (PISOX). This strategy seems to be scalable, has a short polymerization time (<5 h), and uniquely, there is no need for a catalyst. PISOX demonstrates outstanding thermal, mechanical, and barrier properties; its barrier to oxygen is 35 times better than PLA, it possesses mechanical properties comparable to high-performance thermoplastics, and the glass transition temperature of 167 °C can be modified by comonomer incorporation. What makes this high-performance material truly exceptional is that it decomposes into CO₂ and biomass in just a few months in soil under home-composting conditions and it hydrolyzes without enzymes present in less than a year in 20 °C water. This unique combination of properties has the potential to be utilized in a range of applications, such as biomedical uses, water-resistant coatings, compostable plastic bags for gardening and agriculture, and packaging plastics with diminished environmental impact.

中文翻译：

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PISOX 共聚酯─生物基和二氧化碳基海洋可降解高性能聚酯


草酸酯和异山梨醇是有趣的聚合物结构单元，因为它们可以来自可再生资源，例如 CO ₂ 和葡萄糖，并且所得聚酯具有出色的材料性能。然而，仲羟基的低反应活性使得异山梨醇难以生成高分子量聚合物。将草酸二芳基酯与异山梨醇结合似乎是生产高分子量异山梨醇基聚草酸酯（PISOX）的一种有前景的方法。该策略似乎具有可扩展性，聚合时间短（<5 小时），而且独特的是不需要催化剂。 PISOX 表现出出色的热性能、机械性能和阻隔性能；它的氧气阻隔性比 PLA 好 35 倍，具有与高性能热塑性塑料相当的机械性能，并且玻璃化转变温度为 167 °C，可通过掺入共聚单体进行改性。这种高性能材料真正的独特之处在于，它在家庭堆肥条件下的土壤中仅需几个月即可分解为 CO ₂ 和生物质，并且在 20° 的温度下不到一年的时间即可在没有酶存在的情况下水解C水。这种独特的性能组合具有广泛的应用潜力，例如生物医学用途、防水涂料、用于园艺和农业的可堆肥塑料袋以及对环境影响较小的包装塑料。