Designing the Death of a Plastic

New York Times (Aug. 6) -- Decades ago, synthetic polymers became popular because they were cheap and durable. Now, scientists are creating material that self-destructs or breaks down for reuse on command. Dismantling these polymers is sometimes called unzipping them, because once the polymers encounter a trigger that removes those traps, their units fall off one after another until the polymers have completely switched back to small molecules. “As soon as you start the process, they just keep going,” says U. of I. materials science and engineering professor Jeffrey S. Moore.