The concept of electrochemically mediated depolymerization is introduced as a means to initiate and regulate depolymerization by efficiently switching between active and dormant species. During the chemical recycling of ATRP-synthesized polymers, high percentages of monomers are successfully regenerated by utilizing a readily available and inexpensive iron catalyst. In the absence of electrochemical means, negligible depolymerization occurs, thus enabling temporal control. Notably, under comparable conditions, electrochemical depolymerization outperforms thermal, photo, and chemical depolymerization approaches yielding higher monomer recovery and unlocking the potential of new solvents to trigger a lower-temperature depolymerization pathway. The presented approach significantly expands the chemical recycling toolbox to include an electrochemical switch as an alternative external stimulus for depolymerization.
Lohmann et al. (Mon,) studied this question.