Designing Sustainable Materials Using Photoresponsive Metallopolymers: A Versatile Platform for Recycling and Self-Healing

Photoresponsive metallopolymers have attracted increasing interest owing to their potential applications in enabling circular recycling and self-healing material systems. The high spatiotemporal precision of light irradiation allows for the selective cleavage and reformation of dynamic reversible bonds. This capability facilitates precise manipulation of topological structures at the molecular level and enables on-demand modulation of bulk material morphology and properties at the macroscopic scale, thereby supporting diverse functional applications. Herein, we present a series of sustainable materials based on photoresponsive metallopolymers that operate via distinct mechanisms, including ligand photosubstitution, photothermal effects, photoinduced redox reactions, and metal–ligand coordination controlled by nonmetallic photoresponsive groups.