Synthesis of discrete oligoethylenes towards chemically recyclable polyolefins
Rui Tan1(谭睿)*, Yanru An1, Yuxin Liu1, Xiaojie Yang1, Qinmeng Zhong1, Xinyue Yan1, Yuxiao Hu1, Minglong Chen2, Jie Cen2, Xiaoman Huang1, Gefei Wang1, Jinming Hu2, Shiyong Liu2 (刘世勇)*, Zhengbiao Zhang1,3(张正彪)*
1College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Soochow University, Suzhou, China
2Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, Hefei National Laboratory of Physical Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China
3State Key Laboratory of Radiation Medicine and Protection, Soochow University, Suzhou, China
Nature Synthesis,2026
Abstract: Polyethylene-like materials consist of long-chain oligoethylene blocks and chemically cleavable linkages, providing a promising alternative to chemically inert polyethylene while retaining comparable properties. Larger and uniform chain lengths of oligoethylene blocks are preferred to retain polyethylene crystallinity; however, the efficient synthesis of uniform ultralong oligoethylenes with guaranteed purity remains challenging. Here we report the precision synthesis of uniform oligoethylenes of up to 576 carbon atoms based on the Julia–Kocienski reaction. Using these as building blocks, a series of high-density polyethylene-like materials with regularly distributed ester linkages were developed. The oligoethylene with 126 carbon atoms readily affords remarkable thermal (Tm ≈ 130 °C) and mechanical properties. Due to the uniformity of oligoethylene blocks, closed-loop chemical recyclability of high-density polyethylene-like materials is possible for at least five cycles, excluding compositional heterogeneity and batch-to-batch fluctuation. Our strategy for constructing uniform oligoethylenes with exceptionally high chain lengths is interesting for new-generation recyclable materials.
Article information: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44160-025-00955-9
