Oral Presentation Royal Australian Chemical Institute National Congress 2026

Zero-carbon functional polymers (136877)

Zachary Heydon 1 , Jason Hwong 1 , Leah G. Tadese 1 2 , Masa Lurie 1 , William T. McLeod 1 , Partha J. Das 2 , Junji Sakamoto 2 , George M. Whitesides 2 , Haihui Joy Jiang 1 2
  1. School of Chemistry, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW, Australia
  2. Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, United States

Most everyday polymers, in either liquid or solid forms, are carbon-based materials. Combustion of carbon-based polymers emits CO2 into the atmosphere, accelerating climate change. Our team explores sustainable inorganic polymers that can be easily produced and fully recycled without waste. Depending on cation-anion combinations of monomers used for reaction, these zero-carbon polymer products have tunable properties.1 Functional zero-carbon polymers and their solutions can be used for a wide range of applications, including thermal insulating materials, anti-fire coatings, high temperature adhesives, slow-release fertilizers for agricultural use, formulating nanostructured liquids to support molecular self-assembly, and forming poly-ionic coacervates that act as nanoreactors for chemical synthesis and heavy metal extraction.

 

  1. Sakamoto, J.; Ten, A.; Kodaimati, M.; Jiang, H. J.; Nagarkar, A. A.; Root, S. E.; Whitesides, G. M.* Polyphosphate materials. US Patent App. 18/694,064, 2024.